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PHILADELPHIA, January 26, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) – President Donald Trump touted his ban on funding to pro-abortion groups today at the GOP retreat in Philadelphia, drawing long applause.
While describing his first acts as president, Trump said, “We’ve reinstated the Mexico City Policy, a longstanding policy,” pausing for applause.
“Isn’t that nice? … A longstanding policy to ensure taxpayer dollars do not fund abortion services overseas.”
The Mexico City Policy has been enacted by Republican presidents since Reagan, and subsequently overturned by Democratic presidents. It bars U.S. taxpayer funding to organizations abroad that perform or promote abortions.
But Trump’s version of the executive order goes even further by banning funding from all U.S. government agencies, and not just USAID. It also bans funding to groups involved in involuntary sterilization.
Experts believe it will not only ban funding to groups like the International Planned Parenthood Federation and Marie Stopes International, but also the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
In his remarks at the retreat, the president also criticized the media for ignoring the March for Life, for the second time in 24 hours.
“By the way on Friday, a lot of people are going to be showing up to Washington, right Mike [Pence]? A lot of people,” he said. “You know, the press never gives them the credit that they deserve. They’ll have three hundred, four hundred, five hundred, six hundred thousand people. You won’t even read about it.”
“When other people show up, you read big time about it. Right? So, it’s not fair. But there is nothing fair about the media. Nothing,” he added.
RELATED: President Trump calls out mainstream media for failing to cover March for Life
Yesterday Trump told ABC's David Muir that the media will cover events like the pro-abortion women’s march, but not pro-life events.
“You’re gonna have a large crowd on Friday, too, which is mostly pro-life people. You’re gonna have a lot of people coming on Friday, and I will say this, and I didn’t realize this, but I was told, you will have a very large crowd of people. I don’t know – as large or larger – some people say it’s gonna be larger. Pro-life people. And they say the press doesn’t cover them,” he said.
Jeanne Mancini, president of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, told LifeSiteNews today she is “delighted” by the unprecedented support the new Trump administration is giving the annual March for Life this week.
“We are just delighted so far with what we have seen, in less than a week, from the Trump administration,” she said.
“We saw the Mexico City Policy reinstated. They have mentioned the March for Life in press briefings and in interviews all week long. We have never seen anything like this in our entire life,” she said.
Watch President Trump's remarks: