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This was the so-called "Mexico City Policy", first announced by Ronald Reagan in 1984 at a United Nations Conference in Mexico city. Ended under Clinton, President Dubya had reinstanted it. Writing in 2004, Allegra A. Jones documented some of the effects of the Mexico City Policy in the Boston College Third World Law Journal in (v. 24, n 1):

Nepal's maternal mortality rate is among the highest in South Asia, in part due to the numerous deaths caused by unsafe abortion. Recognizing that the criminalization of abortion was greatly contributing to Nepal's high maternal morbidity and mortality rates, theNepalese Ministry of Health developed a plan to decriminalize abortion; however, the plan involved forming a coalition of NGOs to create advocacy strategies.69 A number of these NGOs received U.S. funds and were thus unable to participate in the Ministry's plan without losing their funding. Even though Nepal eventually legalized abortion in a historic move in 2002, the Mexico City Policy will continue to reduce the ability of Nepalese NGOs to provide safe and legal abortion services, since U.S. funding is the largest source of foreign family planning assistance in Nepal. As a result, organizations will likely choose to continue receiving USAID funds rather than risking bankruptcy.

Another practical effect of the Mexico City Policy has been the closure of family planning clinics due to USAID's withdrawal of funding, notably in sub-Saharan Africa. Seventeen centers in Uganda, five centers in Kenya, one outreach program serving poor communities in Ethiopia, and several clinics in Tanzania have closed for this reason. In Kenya alone, the five clinics that closed served tens of thousands of women. They provided basic services that many poor women could not otherwise afford or access, including well-baby care, pre- and post-natal obstetric care, HIV testing and counseling, and contraception. In order to avoid closing seven more health posts and one maternal nursing home when President Bush imposed the global gag rule, health care provider Marie Stopes International of Kenya laid off one-fifth of its staff, cut the remaining employees' salaries, reorganized its clinic structure, and increased client fees. The country's other leading reproductive health provider, the Family Planning Association of Kenya, laid off nearly one-third of its staff, raised patient fees, and cut salaries in order to keep its remaining clinics open and running without U.S. funding.