Lawmakers Introduce Bill to Get Rid of Helms Amendment—’A Racist, Colonial Relic’

One analysis estimates the repeal would result in 19 million fewer unsafe abortions each year.

Wednesday, March 10, 2021
By Andrea Germanos, staff writer, Common Dreams

A group of pro-choice congresswomen launched a fresh bid this week to get rid of a policy that blocks U.S. foreign assistance funds from going to abortion care services and that its critics call a "stark example of neocolonialism."

Led by Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), the group of lawmakers reintroduced on Tuesday the Abortion Is Health Care Everywhere Act, which would repeal the Helms Amendment.

Continued: https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/03/10/lawmakers-introduce-bill-get-rid-helms-amendment-racist-colonial-relic


U.S. President’s Global Gag Rule is Having Negative Impact on the Health of Malawians: Report

U.S. President’s Global Gag Rule is Having Negative Impact on the Health of Malawians: Report

By Samira Sadeque

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 19 2020 (IPS) - A report released last week has detailed the complex ways in which President Donald Trump’s ‘Global Gag Rule’ (GGR), that blocks U.S. global health assistance to foreign non-governmental facilities providing abortion or abortion-related services, is affecting the population in Malawi, a country already hard hit with numerous climate change disasters.

The report, titled ‘A Powerful Force: U.S. Global Health Assistance and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in Malawi’ was released on Feb. 10 by Washington, D.C.-based sexual and reproductive health rights organisation CHANGE, the Center for Health and Gender Equity.

Continued: http://www.ipsnews.net/2020/02/u-s-presidents-global-gag-rule-negative-impact-health-malawians-report/


Trump Is Doubling Down On His Already Expansive Anti-Abortion Foreign Policy

Trump Is Doubling Down On His Already Expansive Anti-Abortion Foreign Policy
Trump’s rule banning US funding from groups that “provide or promote” abortion was already further-reaching than any previous Republican president’s.

Ema O'Connor BuzzFeed News Reporter
Posted on March 26, 2019

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration will expand its anti-abortion rules abroad, a move that many international health organizations say worsens an already devastating policy for women’s health.

The State Department announced Tuesday the administration will expand a rule that blocks US funding from any international nongovernmental organization that “provides or promotes abortion as a method of birth control.” The rule, called the Mexico City Policy, will now not only apply to organizations receiving US funding, but any local organizations those organizations support. Many groups that rely on US funding stopped doing international aid work related to abortion in order to keep those funds. The expanded rule will mean that they will have to stop giving financial support to other groups doing that work as well, even if they were using non-US or private funds to provide that support.

Continued: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/emaoconnor/trump-double-down-anti-abortion-gag-rule


Report Slams Trump’s Abortion ‘Gag Rule’

Report Slams Trump’s Abortion ‘Gag Rule’
A rule first imposed by Ronald Reagan and intensified by Donald Trump doesn’t prevent abortions in developing countries and limits other unrelated medical services, according to a new analysis.

By Paul D. Shinkman, Senior National Security Writer
June 5, 2018

President Donald Trump's unprecedented expansion of a rule prohibiting U.S. funds to international aid groups that discuss or perform abortions is having a severe effect on countries most in need of global support, according to a new study, including prior claims the policy leads to millions of unwanted pregnancies and unsafe abortions and tens of thousands of deaths.

The policy – which applies to $9 billion in funds appropriated to multiple government agencies – is having wide-reaching effects, including shutting down funding to some nongovernmental organizations that served as the sole source of health care in developing countries hard-hit by sexually transmitted diseases and unintended pregnancies, according to the report "Prescribing Chaos in Global Health: The Global Gag Rule From 1984-2018" conducted by the Center for Health and Gender Equality or CHANGE, released on Tuesday.

Continued: https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2018-06-05/report-trumps-foreign-abortion-gag-rule-harms-developing-countries-other-foreign-aid