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Washington D.C., Jan 23, 2017 / 10:00 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Monday, President Donald Trump reinstated the Mexico City Policy, an international pro-life regulation that is generally seen as an indicator of an incoming president’s views on abortion.

The executive order was signed January 23, one day after the anniversary of the far-reaching Roe v. Wade decision that mandated legal abortion throughout the U.S.

Originally instituted by President Ronald Reagan in 1984, the Mexico City Policy states that foreign non-governmental organizations may not receive federal funding if they perform or promote abortions as a method of family planning.

In the years that followed, the Mexico City Policy has become emblematic of a new president’s stance on abortion. Incoming presidents generally overturn or reinstate the policy within their first week of office, symbolizing the stance that they will take on abortion issues over the course of their presidency.

President Bill Clinton overturned the policy on January 22, 1993. President George W. Bush reinstated it January 22, 2001. President Barack Obama once again rescinded it on January 23, 2009, drawing swift criticism from the Vatican.

Restoring the policy was not among Trump’s campaign promises, leading to some concern over whether he would institute the policy if elected.

Trump did make other pro-life campaign promises, including pledges to nominate pro-life Supreme Court justices; sign into law a ban on late-term abortions; defund Planned Parenthood and reallocate funding to community health centers that do not perform abortions; and make permanent a ban taxpayer funding of abortion.

 

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Washington D.C., Jan 23, 2017 / 11:24 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Religious leaders gathered in prayer for the country and the Trump administration on Saturday, continuing a decades-old tradition of national prayer at the start of a new presidential term.

“Almighty God, You have given us this good land as our heritage. Make us always remember Your generosity and constantly do Your will,” Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C. prayed the “Prayer for Our Country” near the end of the National Prayer Service for the 58th Presidential Inaugural.  

The National Prayer Service at the Presidential Inauguration is a tradition that dates back to 1933 with the inauguration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Religious leaders gather to pray for the new president and his administration at the beginning of their term.

Saturday’s prayer service at Washington National Cathedral in Northwest Washington, D.C. featured calls to prayer from Christian, Muslim, and Jewish leaders, as well as prayer by Hindu, Sikh and Ba’hai leaders.

President Trump and his wife Melania were present, along with Vice President Mike Pence and his wife Karen. Several nuns of the Little Sisters of the Poor were also present in the audience.

The service was preceded by a choral prelude including the Holy Comforter-Saint Cyprian Catholic Church choir, from their parish in Southeast Washington, D.C., performing Gospel pieces.

Rev. Randolph Marshall Hollerith, dean of the cathedral, began by praying for God to “take away the arrogance and hatred which infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us.”

Alveda King, niece of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, led a “Prayer for Those Who Govern.”

Archbishop Demetrios of America, primate of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, prayed for God to “deliver us in our various occupations from the service of self alone, that we may do the work you have given us to do in truth and beauty and for the common good.”

Near the end of the service, Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C. led the “Prayer for Our Country.”

“Bless our land with honest industry, sound learning, and an honorable way of life. Save us from violence, discord, and confusion; from pride and arrogance; and from every evil way,” he prayed.

“Make us who come from many nations with many different languages a united people.”

On Friday, Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York read from the Book of Wisdom at the Presidential Inauguration on Capitol Hill, minutes before Trump took the Oath of Office and was sworn in as the country’s 45th president.  

Pope Francis asked President Trump to remember the poor as president, and promised him his prayers in a Jan. 20 message.

“At a time when our human family is beset by grave humanitarian crises demanding farsighted and united political responses, I pray that your decisions will be guided by the rich spiritual and ethical values that have shaped the history of the American people and your nation’s commitment to the advancement of human dignity and freedom worldwide,” Pope Francis said.

 

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Washington D.C., Jan 23, 2017 / 11:52 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Amid signs proclaiming “Keep Your Rosaries Off My Ovaries,” “#IstandWithPlannedParenthood”, and a host of other homemade posters ranging from the snarky to the explicit at the Women’s March on Washington, pro-life women staked a spot in support of women’s dignity – and against abortion.

Their presence became a point of contention earlier in the week after pro-life feminist organization New Wave Feminists had their partnership in the Women’s March revoked for their pro-life views.

The withdrawal of partnership status, however, didn’t stop pro-life women from joining in the Women’s March on Washington, nor from promoting their pro-life views.

“Since when do we wait to be invited to stuff?” Destiny Herndon de la Rosa, president of New Wave Feminists, said to CNA at the Women’s March. “If you don’t feel like you have a spot carved out, then be the one to forge that platform, be the one to carve out that spot.”

The Women’s March on Washington was held Jan. 21, the day after the inauguration of President Donald Trump. While the march was held primarily to support women and other groups seen as marginalized within American society, organizers said the event was also meant to send a “bold message” on a variety of topics. Earlier in January, the group released a list of guiding principles –  including “open access to safe, legal, affordable abortion and birth control for all people.”

More than 100 organizations, including Planned Parenthood, were listed as official partners of the main Washington, D.C. March. Originally the list included New Wave Feminists and other pro-life organizations such as And Then There Were None, but their status was removed because of their pro-life stance.

The Women’s March on Washington drew at least an estimated 400,000, with hundreds of thousands of participants in similar marches around the country.

Reagan Barklage, Midwest Regional Director for Students for Life of America, said the opposition to the pro-life message was felt by herself and other pro-life women with whom she marched.

“It was ridiculous and it was just really vulgar and disgusting to see the signs these women had, the chants they were saying,” Barklage told CNA. The group’s presence and pro-life banners drew stiff backlash, she recalled. Some men tore up Barklage’s signs, while others “spit on one of our staff and shoved the megaphone into her face.”



The opposition became even more physical as march participants shoved and pushed over Barklage and former Planned Parenthood manager and And Then There Were None president Abby Johnson, who is pregnant with twins.

“It was really intense and it was crazy,” Barklage recounted.

Despite the pushback, Barklage told CNA the pro-life message needed to be heard at the Women’s March. “We actually wanted to partner with them before we knew that abortion was going to be involved.”

After Planned Parenthood was announced as a partner and abortion became a part of the event’s platform, she continued, Students for Life solidified their determination to participate and to represent women who have been harmed by abortion.

“We are going to represent women who have been betrayed by abortion and the preborn women who don’t have a voice.”

Barklage added that the group ended up technically leading the Women’s March, jumping in front of the crowd with banners stating, “Abortion Betrays Women.”

Hernon de la Rosa told CNA that while initially the response to their anti-abortion position was negative and lead to the removal of their partnership status, the New Wave Feminists actually received support in the face of opposition.

She pointed in a Facebook post to a message she had received from one of the organizers of the Pussyhat Project, a cat-ear hat knitting project organized for the March. De la Rosa recounted that one of the organizers asked New Wave Feminists to march with them, explaining that she was pro-life herself and had chosen life during an unplanned pregnancy.

Throughout the March, New Wave Feminists and other pro-life groups near them received sharp questions and some derisive looks, but they also received numerous messages of encouragement and support from fellow protestors. During the course of the rally, several people asked if they could take a “I am a Pro-Life Feminist” sign for themselves, sharing that they were pro-life. Similar shows of support and requests to join were also experienced by pro-lifers marching with Students for Life of America.

Other protestors, like Jennifer – a pro-choice participant in the March from Chicago – told pro-life feminists that while they were not pro-life themselves, they were happy to see a pro-life contingent at the Women’s March. “It’s just frustrating because it’s not an either or-situation –  it’s just another way to divide us,” Jennifer told CNA of the march’s opposition to pro-life groups. “They should be here. We should welcome each other.”

Pro-life women also held their own events outside of the Women’s March in support of women. The Archdiocese of Washington hosted an online Women’s Rosary the morning asking women to “pray a rosary in thanksgiving for the gift of the feminine genius and for the grace to become guardians of culture.”

“It is sad that all women are not included in the March for Women tomorrow, and we felt like we wanted to do something that celebrated all women,” Kim Fiorentino, chancellor of the Archdiocese of Washington, said in the Archdiocese’s publication, The Catholic Standard. “We believe the Blessed Mother is a wonderful role model for all women, and we know she intervenes for us.”

Cessilye Smith, a doula and representative of New Wave Feminists, told CNA that despite varying opinions, there is much that people at the march had in common. She pointed to her own belief that “every life is valuable from the womb to the tomb” and added that that belief in a consistent ethic of life drives her to help address other women’s issues, such as providing food and financial support to help women choose life during a crisis pregnancy.

“We have so much more in common than we do apart,” Smith exclaimed. “We can really get some things done, we can really provide excellent resources and excellent care for the whole woman and her baby.”

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IMAGE: CNS photo/Kevin Lamarque, Reuters

By Mark Pattison

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- President Donald J. Trump issued an executive order Jan. 23 reinstating the "Mexico City Policy," which bans all foreign nongovernmental organizations receiving U.S. funds from performing or promoting abortion as a method of family planning in other countries.

The action was hailed by pro-life leaders.

"President Trump is continuing Ronald Reagan's legacy by taking immediate action on day one to stop the promotion of abortion through our tax dollars overseas." said a Jan. 23 statement from Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List.

"President Trump's immediate action to promote respect for all human life, including vulnerable unborn children abroad, as well as conscience rights, sends a strong signal about his administration's pro-life priorities," she said.

"By redirecting taxpayer dollars away from the international abortion industry, President Trump has reinstituted life-affirming protections for unborn children and their mothers," said a Jan. 23 statement by Rep. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey, co-chair of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus. "There is political consensus that taxpayer dollars should not fund abortion and the abortion industry."

"Now we see pro-life fruits of the election unfolding as President Trump has taken immediate action to reinstitute President Reagan's Mexico City Policy," said Father Frank Pavone, head of Priests for Life, in a Jan. 23 statement. "Poll after poll shows that Americans do not want their tax money to pay for abortions. Stopping funding to foreign pro-abortion groups is a powerful first step toward doing the same domestically."

Named for the city that hosted the U.N. International Conference on Population in 1984 -- where Reagan, then in his first term as president, unveiled it -- the Mexico City Policy has been the textbook definition of a political football. Adopted by a Republican president, it has been rescinded when Democrats sat in the White House, only to be restored when Republicans claimed the presidency.

In 1993, President Bill Clinton's revocation of the policy was made so quickly following his inauguration that some participants in the March for Life, conducted two days after the inauguration, carried "Impeach Clinton" signs.

Just as Clinton had rescinded the policy two days after taking office, so did President George W. Bush reinstate it two days into his presidency, expanding it to include all voluntary family planning activities. President Barack Obama rescinded the policy Jan. 23, 2009.

Court challenges to the policy resulted in rulings in 1987 and 1988 that limited its application to foreign NGOs.

The executive order "makes clear that Trump intends to carry out with his promised pro-life agenda. Taxpayer funding for abortions, whether here or overseas, is unpopular with voters and is plain wrong," said a Jan. 23 statement by Ashley McGuire, a senior fellow with the Catholic Association.

"It amounts to subsidizing the violent victimization of women and children, in particular poor and minority women who feel they have no choice but to have an abortion," McGuire said. "Redirecting those funds to health centers that offer women real choice and hope is the right policy moving forward."

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Follow Pattison on Twitter: @MeMarkPattison.

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