Notice Number: NOT-OD-17-083

Key Dates
Release Date: June 23, 2017

Issued by
National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Purpose

On January 23, 2017, President Trump signed the Presidential Memorandum reinstating the 2001 Presidential Memorandum on the Mexico City Policy, and directing the Secretary of State to implement a plan to extend the Mexico City Policy to global health assistance furnished by all departments or agencies.

In May, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson approved a plan, called Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance, (PLGHA) to implement the manner in which U.S. Government Departments and Agencies will apply the provisions of the Mexico City Policy to foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that receive U.S. funding for global health assistance. Under this expanded policy, global health assistance includes funding for international health programs, such as those for HIV/AIDS, maternal and child health, malaria, global health security, and family planning and reproductive health.

Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance does not reduce the amount of global health assistance the U.S. Government makes available, and funding previously obligated will not be affected as a result of this policy. The United States remains deeply committed to supporting health programs around the world.

Effective Date:

Effective the date of publication, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will implement the requirements of Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance through terms and conditions of award for all applicable new PEPFAR grants and cooperative agreements and to existing awards when amended to add new funding.

Applicability:

This policy covers all U.S. global health assistance to the extent allowable by law. For NIH, this policy applies to all awards provided under the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

Each organization will have the opportunity to indicate its agreement to abide by the terms of the new policy by accepting the provisions in its award. Foreign NGOs that agree not to perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning, or provide financial support to any other foreign non-governmental organization that conducts such activities, will remain eligible for global health assistance funding.

For the purposes of this policy, a U.S. NGO is an organization organized under the laws of the United States, any State of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or any other territory or possession of the United States.

For NIH, this policy applies to Foreign NGOs (e.g., foreign private institutions) directly supported by or that are subrecipients of U.S. NGOs.

This policy does not apply to U.S. NGOs ; Foreign governments (e.g., foreign public universities and public international (multilateral) organizations, such as the World Health Organization); and subrecipients of awards made to U.S. governmental institutions (e.g., public universities).

Each organization will be required to indicate its agreement to abide by the terms of the new policy by accepting the provisions in its award. Foreign NGOs that agree not to perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning, or to provide financial support to any other foreign non-governmental organization that conducts such activities, will remain eligible for PEPFAR funding.

The provisions for these PEPFAR awards may be found on the NIH Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance website: https://grants.nih.gov/policy/protecting-life-global-health-assistance.htm.

If the grantee materially fails to meet the terms and conditions of this requirement, NIH officials will take actions to remedy any acts of non-compliance.

Inquiries

Please direct all inquiries to:

Division of Grants Compliance and Oversight
Office of Policy for Extramural Research Administration (OER)
Telephone: 301-435-0938
Email: GrantsCompliance@od.nih.gov