The Mexico City Policy, also known as the Global Gag Rule, was reinstated in 2001.It is a complicated policy for which explanations are rarely brief. Consequently, it is widely misunderstood and often over-interpreted. Anecdotal evidence from the field strongly suggests that the Global Gag Rule restrictions on U.S. family planning assistance are being mistakenly applied to other U.S.Agency for International Development (USAID) accounts,especially U.S. assistance for HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care.

On January 22, 2001 - his second day in office - President George W. Bush announced the reinstatement of the restrictions on overseas health care organizations in effect during the mid-1980s and early 1990s, commonly known as the "Mexico City Policy." The policy reversal has had serious ramifications for U.S. support for international family planning and reproductive health programs around the world.

Since 2001, the U.S. Congress has encouraged the U.S. Agency for International Development – USAID, the agency that dispenses foreign development assistance – to implement family planning and related reproductive health programs in areas where biological diversity is threatened and where species are endangered. Congress has never specified a funding level for these activities, which are supported by funds appropriated for international family planning programs, amounting to more than US$400 million annually in recent years. Over the past few years the agency has allocated between $1 million and $2 million annually to fund such projects and to explore the implications of the population-environment linkage as it applies to the conservation of critical ecosystems and the biodiversity they shelter.

Population growth around the world affects Americans through its impact on the economy, the environment, and safety and health, and the habitability of the world our children will inherit. While tracing cause and effect is difficult the evidence is accumulating that current rates of population growth pose significant and interacting risks to human well-being and are a legitimate concern for Americans.