The Effect of the Expanded Mexico City Policy on HIV/AIDS Programming: Evidence from the PEPFAR Implementing Partners Survey

Published on January 31, 2019

Overview

On January 23, 2017, President Trump reinstated and significantly expanded the Mexico City Policy (MCP), which prohibits non- U.S.-based nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) from receiving U.S. global health funding if they perform, counsel on, or refer for abortion, or advocate for its liberalization outside of limited exceptions. Whereas the MCP historically only implicated family planning funding, the expanded MCP (EMCP) now applies to all federal global health assistance funding. As such, the EMCP now applies to HIV funding through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), implicating hundreds of new implementing partners (IPs) that were previously exempt. While the EMCP’s impact on PEPFAR IPs is not yet known, previous iterations of the MCP prompted service reductions and clinic closures among family planning providers. In order to understand if and how PEPFAR IPs may be affected, amfAR, in collaboration with Johns Hopkins University, launched a confidential electronic survey and key-informant interviews with PEPFAR IPs to document any changes in organizational operations and service delivery prompted by the EMCP.

View Infographic: How Expanded Mexico City Policy Is Disrupting Global HIV Programs

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