ABSTRACT
The discussion of the differences Cairo made will be based primarily on anecdotal evidence. The first official opportunity to assess the extent of the behavioral and discursive changes evident since the 1994 Cairo conference was the 1999 Cairo Plus Five Review held in the Netherlands. The UN reported that since the Cairo conference, more than 40 countries had taken concrete policy actions toward the goal of providing universal access to reproductive healthcare. In 2000, Congress and the Clinton administration eliminated the Mexico City Policy from the FY 2001 appropriations legislation, but withheld the release of international family planning funding until 15 February 2001, which allowed the new president to decide whether to reauthorize the policy. On 22 January 2001, President George W. Bush reimposed the global gag rule on USAID programs. With the plethora of global conferences held in the 1990s, many interviewees expressed a concern about "conference fatigue".
