Anticipated Effects of the U.S. Mexico City Policy on the Attainability of the Millennium Development Goals and future Development Efforts in sub-Saharan Africa

Authors

Katherine Clare Alexander, Portland State University

Subjects

Family planning -- Developing countries, Birth control -- Developing countries, Abortion -- Government policy -- United States, Population policy, Reproductive health -- Developing countries, Women -- Health and hygiene -- Developing countries

Abstract

In the low-income countries of sub-Saharan Africa, the performance of pyramidal reproductive health and family planning services with public outreach initiatives has not met the expectations or the needs of the communities they serve. Insufficient case management, limited management capacity and referral and communication failures are challenges faced on the delivery level, while on the policy level these health clinics face insufficient coordination among organizations and weak links between programs (Schneider, 2006). The Mexico City Policy, first introduced by President Reagan in 1984, only exacerbated these challenges for organizations that offer comprehensive contraception and family planning programs by denying any U.S. funding to any organization that performs abortions, provides abortion counseling or referrals, advocates for the legalization of abortion or seeks merely to inform women on this procedure. This U.S. policy was repealed by Democratic President Bill Clinton in 1993 only to be reinstated by Republican President George W. Bush in 2001 and repealed for a second time by President Obama in January 2009. The Mexico City Policy cut significant funding to reproductive health care facilities, thereby limiting their outreach program capabilities, their contraceptive supplies and their overall ability to cater to the health needs of the women of sub-Saharan Africa and their families, resulting in the severely compromised the progress of the Millennium Development Goals and present living conditions in sub-Saharan Africa.

DOI

10.15760/anthos.2010.1

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

Persistent Identifier

http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/12528

Recommended Citation

Alexander, Katherine Clare (2010) "Anticipated Effects of the U.S. Mexico City Policy on the Attainability of the Millennium Development Goals and future Development Efforts in sub-Saharan Africa," Anthós: Vol. 2: Iss. 1, Article 1.
https://doi.org/10.15760/anthos.2010.1