Sample Letter on a Current Issue
Support the Reinstatement of the Mexico City Policy
(H.R. 708)
Letter from Seventy-seven Members of Congress to the Then President-elect Obama, January 16, 2009

Using the below letter or the other sample letters on this issue and the other resources related to it, please put a letter in your own words (or use a sample letter as is), and mail it to your federal House representative, your two federal senators, and President Obama. It's much better to send a form letter than not to send a letter at all.

On January 16, 2009, a group of seventy-seven members of Congress wrote the then President-elect Obama a letter asking him to back down from overturning the Mexico City Policy.

Source: http://www.lifenews.com/RetainMexicoCityPolicyLettertoPresident-ElectObama.pdf (The below letter has been edited so that an individual can send it.)

John Doe
12345 Main St
Minneapolis MN 55418-3209

Date

President Barack Obama
The President of the United States of America
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington DC 20500

Dear Mr. President,

Subject: Please Support the Reinstatement of the Mexico City Policy (H.R. 708)

I think that your overturning of the Mexico City Policy was wrong, and I urge you to reconsider and reinstate the Mexico City Policy, which separates abortion and family planning in America's foreign aid programs.

First developed in the Reagan Administration, this policy is important because it establishes a bright line between family planning activities and abortion, therefore ensuring that United States family planning funds are not co-opted by groups that promote abortion as a method of family planning. But now you are sending the message overseas that the United States promotes abortion.

Under Mexico City policy, funding for family planning is not reduced by one penny. A policy against promoting abortion is only "anti-family planning" if one assumes that abortion itself is a method of "family planning." This policy simply ensures that taxpayer money is not used overseas to fund highly controversial providers.

We also have a responsibility to respect the laws of the many developing countries who have laws prohibiting or restricting abortion. It is an insult to fund organizations that are intent on overturning those laws by promoting the Western ideology of abortion on demand. I hope that you would agree that the last thing the United States intends in our assistance is to insult nations that respect the dignity of life or destabilize the rule of law in countries striving to move toward progress.

I do not want to fund groups that are trying to export abortion around the world. That is not the way to reduce the number of abortions.

I respectfully ask that you reinstate the Mexico City policy.

Thank you for your consideration of my position on this important issue.

I would appreciate a response to my letter.

Sincerely,

[Signature]
John Doe

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Support the Reinstatement of the Mexico City Policy