The plaintiffs, domestic and foreign nongovernmental organizations, challenged the lawfulness of the Agency for International Development's implementation of Government policy not to contribute funds to foreign nongovernmental organizations that perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning abroad. The Court reversed a lower court decision and held that the plaintiffs had standing to bring their suit. It ruled that the plaintiffs were not attempting to litigate a political question since they did not seek to litigate the political and social wisdom of the policy, but only its legality. It also allowed the plaintiffs to amend their complaint to state that, but for the policy, they would be qualified to receive funds. In a similar case, the United States District Court, S.D. New York, held that AID was acting within its statutory and administrative authority in withholding federal assistance to organizations that perform or actively promote abortions as a method of family planning and that the plaintiffs' constitutional challenge of this policy presented a nonjusticiable political question (Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. vs. Agency for International Development, 29 September 1987, [670 F.Supp. 538]).
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