Agency announces policy on use of U.S. dollars to fund abortions

In an April 1994 statement, the USAID articulated its current policy on abortion. Reiterating the Clinton Administration's view that abortions should be "safe, legal, and rare," the policy remains surprisingly close to the positions of the Reagan and Bush Administrations. According to the Helms Amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act (FAA), AID monies cannot be used for the "performance of abortion as a method of family planning." Under the previous Administrations, AID ceased all abortion funding based on this restrictive language. The Clinton Administration policy notes that AID neither "advocate[s] the use of abortion as a method of family planning" nor "use[s] its policies or programs to restrict ... [the] right to choose" abortion. Yet it interprets the Helms Amendment to permit abortion funding only in cases of rape, incest, and life endangerment--the same conditions placed on federal Medicaid funds by the Hyde Amendment. Funds can also be used for the treatment of complications caused by unsafe, incomplete, or septic abortions. Because the US is a major contributor to population and family planning programs, a change in AID policy can have a widespread impact on the reproductive health of women worldwide, especially in developing countries. Up to 167,000 women are estimated to die each year as a result of unsafe abortion and its complications.