Trump’s reinstatement and expansion of the global gag rule has harmful effects for women, men, and children

Trump’s reinstatement and expansion of the global gag rule has harmful effects for women, men, and children

Jan 11, 2019
Yana van der Meulen Rodgers, Ernestina Coast, and Nicky Armstrong

Two years ago this month, President Trump reinstated and expanded the global gag rule – the perennial Republican policy which cuts US funding for any organisation worldwide which offers abortion services or counselling. Yana van der Meulen Rodgers, Ernestina Coast and Nicky Armstrong argue that not only will the measure – which covers a pot of nearly $10 billion in funding for NGOs – be ineffective in reducing the number of abortions, it will also harm women’s’ reproductive health as well as making other crucial health services less available to women, men, and children around the world.

Who influences whether women in poorer countries can access abortions and other sexual health services? It may surprise you, but the US president has an important part to play. This is because of the so called “global gag rule”(GGR), a US foreign policy that cuts family planning and reproductive health assistance to any healthcare provider overseas which offers and provides abortions.

Continued: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/2019/01/11/trumps-reinstatement-and-expansion-of-the-global-gag-rule-has-harmful-effects-for-women-men-and-children/

11.01.2019

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Ernestina Coast

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Yana van der Meulen Rodgers

Trump’s Ban On Funding For Overseas Abortions Has Some Little-Known Exceptions

Trump's Ban On Funding For Overseas Abortions Has Some Little-Known Exceptions

June 13, 2018
Nurith Aizenman

It was one of Donald Trump's first acts as President: a Jan. 23, 2017 executive order that cuts off U.S. support to foreign groups unless they promise not to "perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning." This includes providing patients with referrals or information about the procedure, even if those activities are funded by non-U.S. government sources.

Every Republican president since Ronald Reagan has adopted a variant of the "Mexico City policy" — so called after the city where it was first announced. And every Democratic successor has reversed it.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2018/06/13/616906884/trumps-ban-on-funding-for-overseas-abortions-has-some-little-known-exceptions

Trump’s Abortion Gag Rule Is Hurting Reproductive Rights Around the Globe

Trump’s Abortion Gag Rule Is Hurting Reproductive Rights Around the Globe
This administration’s version of the Global Gag Rule could impact up to 26 million women worldwide.

By Michelle Chen
March 6, 2018

In January, women marked one year of Trump’s presidency by rallying in protest, showing they refused to be silenced by Trump’s oppressive regime. But January also saw the first anniversary of the Global Gag rule, the administration’s ban on international-aid funding for groups linked to abortion-related family-planning services.

The gag rule does not directly ban abortion-related services in aid-receiving communities but, rather, links major funding from USAID to strict rules on avoiding facilitation or promotion of abortion in any way. USAID is currently a dominant contributor to global family-planning programs, supporting some $600 million in grants for service providers within a multibillion-dollar framework of global health aid. Trump’s gag rule revives Reagan-era strictures on services, and expands them an estimated 16 times, according to the Global Fund for Women.

Continued: https://www.thenation.com/article/trumps-abortion-gag-rule-is-hurting-reproductive-rights-around-the-globe/

Trump-Pence Administration’s Neocolonial Assault on Reproductive Freedom Is Killing African Women and Girls

Trump-Pence Administration’s Neocolonial Assault on Reproductive Freedom Is Killing African Women and Girls
Jan 23, 2018
Hayley Farless

As advocates and researchers have seen, it is African women and girls who are suffering because of the United States’ interference with reproductive autonomy globally.

Just three days after his inauguration, President Donald Trump issued a memorandum to reinstate and expand the “global gag rule,” a Reagan-era, anti-abortion, foreign policy directive, with the backing of Vice President Mike Pence. Because of this policy, any nongovernmental organization (NGO) outside of the United States that provides abortion procedures, participates in pro-choice advocacy, supplies information about abortion, or offers referrals to abortion providers has been forced to choose between forfeiting U.S. foreign assistance funding or ceasing to provide the basic reproductive health services that its patients need.

The global gag rule, also known as the “Mexico City Policy,” goes beyond just blocking U.S. funding for critical reproductive health services. A Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE) research report notes that this policy also restricts what groups receiving U.S. funds can do with money from all other sources; organizations must subject all their funds to the same restrictions or lose U.S. funding.

Continued: https://rewire.news/article/2018/01/23/trump-pence-administrations-neocolonial-assault-reproductive-freedom-killing-african-women-girls/

Protect Global Health, End the Gag Rule

Protect Global Health, End the Gag Rule
By: Kory Stuer
09/28/2017

The World Health Organization estimates that every eight minutes a woman in the developing world dies from an unsafe abortion. On January 23, 2017 President Donald Trump endangered even more women’ lives by reinstating the “Mexico City policy,” more commonly known as the global gag rule. First put in place under Ronald Reagan, the global gag rule has seesawed through the last thirty-three years; each time a Democratic president has come into office he has rescinded the policy, and each time a Republican has won the presidency he has reinstated it. Trump’s reinstatement of the policy expanded its impact further than ever before, applying it for the first time to all U.S. global health spending. Today, on International Safe Abortion Day, we must all call for an end to playing political games with health and lives and demand the permanent repeal of the global gag rule.

Continued at source: http://georgetownvoice.com/2017/09/28/protect-global-health-end-the-gag-rule/

28.09.2017

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Trump expands policy that bans US aid for overseas abortion providers

Trump expands policy that bans US aid for overseas abortion providers

Trump widens ‘Mexico City policy’, which had been suspended under Obama
Rule will prevent foreign aid going to groups that even discuss abortion rights

Molly Redden

Monday 15 May 2017

The Trump administration on Monday significantly expanded a Reagan-era policy banning foreign aid to international healthcare providers who discuss abortion or advocate for abortion rights, in a move critics fear will jeopardize efforts to fight diseases such as malaria, HIV/Aids, and the Zika virus.

The new terms of the ban will apply to $8.8bn in existing foreign aid provided by the state department, USAid, and the Department of Defense – dwarfing the $600m in programming that fell under the ban during previous administrations.

Continued at source: The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/15/trump-abortion-rule-mexico-city-policy

Trump administration halts money to UN population fund over abortion rules

Trump administration halts money to UN population fund over abortion rules

International family planning agency, which will lose all future US funding, rejects state department claims it supports ‘coercive abortion’ in China

Liz Ford and Nadia Khomami
Tuesday 4 April 2017

The US state department said on Monday it was ending funding for the UN population fund (UNFPA) – the first concrete move in what activists describe as President Donald Trump’s “crusade against the health and rights of women and girls globally”.

Following weeks of speculation, a letter to Bob Corker, the chairman of the US Senate foreign relations committee, announced the state department was dropping the funding because the UNFPA “supports, or participates in the management of, a programme of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilisation”.

Continued at link: The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/apr/04/trump-administration-un-population-fund-abortion

U.S. gag rule garrotes global health

U.S. gag rule garrotes global health

By Sue Davis
Posted on February 5, 2017

The first action President Trump took on his first work day in office was to sign a memorandum signaling a full-fledged attack on health care around the world. He made this assault, directed ostensibly at women’s health and rights, on Jan. 23, the day after the 44th anniversary of Roe v. Wade and two days after the 5-million-global Women’s March. Roe v. Wade was the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in the U.S.

Continued at link
Source, Workers' World: http://www.workers.org/2017/02/05/u-s-gag-rule-garrotes-global-health/#.WJj5G7qXDMg