Working Paper
Determinants of Foreign Aid in Family Planning

How Relevant is the Mexico City Policy?

The Mexico City Policy (MCP) prohibits the United States Agency for International Development from providing aid to international non-governmental organizations that provide abortion-related services. This paper employs a panel data of 151 developing countries over the period of 1988‒2010, to examine the effect of the MCP on the allocation of family planning aid to developing countries. We find that the MCP has a negative and robust effect on family planning aid. We also find that family planning aid to countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is higher than aid to non-SSA countries, and that high fertility rate countries as well as highly populated countries tend to receive more family planning aid.