Trump Vs International Abortion
Feb 7, 2017

Heather Jeffrey, Lecturer in Tourism Studies at the University of Bedfordshire

Donald Trump has been in office for but two weeks and already he is dramatically changing the face of the World as we know it. One of Trump’s first actions was to reinstate the global gag rule, a rule initially devised in 1984 by Ronald Reagan. When initiating this, Reagan drew heavily on the morality of US citizens, suggesting the rule was about removing financial support for abortions around the world. Similarly, the conversation about the gag rule has mostly focused around the subject of abortion. Yet, what the gag rule actually does is reduce funding for organisations that educate and counsel on a whole range of issues, including family planning, maternal health, HIV prevention and testing, contraception and sex education for young people.

In order to better understand how this might affect women in the countries that may see a dramatic reduction in financial aid supporting family planning, I interviewed Dr Bianca Stumbitz, who has extensive experience researching issues related to maternity protection including in both Ghana and Malaysia. Bianca draws primarily on her experiences in Ghana, working on an ILO funded study concerning maternity protection in the workplace, looking especially at informal workers in impoverished areas, where access to health care is a key challenge.

Continued at source: Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/heather-jeffrey/trump-v-international-abo_b_14630600.html