Kenyan Clinic Rejects Trump Abortion Policy, Loses $2 Million In U.S. Aid

Kenyan Clinic Rejects Trump Abortion Policy, Loses $2 Million In U.S. Aid

May 2, 2018
Sasha Ingber

On January 23, 2017, President Trump signed an executive order that bans U.S. aid to any health organization in another country that provides abortions, advocates or makes referrals for the procedure.

The full impact of the order won't be felt until September. That's when the U.S. government fiscal year comes to an end. At that point, every international organization that does not comply with the order will be excluded from U.S. funding, says Marjorie Newman-Williams, president of Marie Stopes International-US, an organization that provides contraception and safe abortion in dozens of countries.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2018/05/02/604425181/kenyan-clinic-rejects-trump-abortion-policy-loses-2-million-in-u-s-aid

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/

Trump’s global gag rule goes far beyond abortion, groups say

Trump's global gag rule goes far beyond abortion, groups say
The Associated Press
Cara Anna
January 23, 2018

JOHANNESBURG — President Donald Trump’s dramatic expansion of a ban on U.S. funding to foreign organizations that promote or provide abortions has left impoverished women around the world without treatment for HIV, malaria and other diseases, health groups say, calling it “devastating” because Trump went where no administration had gone before.

Trump in his first working day in office revived the so-called global gag rule. He expanded on previous versions so that for the first time foreign NGOs that even discuss abortion as an option are barred not only from about $575 million in U.S. family planning funds but also an estimated $8.8 billion in U.S. global health aid. And they must certify that none of their non-U.S. funding goes for abortion-related activities.

Continued: http://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/trumps-global-gag-rule-goes-far-beyond-abortion-groups-say

In One Year, Trump Dismantled Reproductive Rights Around The World

In One Year, Trump Dismantled Reproductive Rights Around The World
Abortion rights advocates say the Trump administration, led by Vice President Mike Pence, is putting anti-abortion activists in influential roles.

By Laura Bassett
01/20/2018

NEW YORK― Women’s health clinics from Iowa to Kenya have been forced to close their doors. International nonprofits have lost the ability to provide birth control, HIV testing and fistula surgeries in the poorest communities around the world. Half a million U.S. teenagers no longer have access to sex education programs.

In a single year, President Donald Trump has already decimated reproductive rights and access to family planning in the U.S. and around the globe.

Continued: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/in-one-year-trump-dismantled-reproductive-rights-around-the-world_us_5a623b94e4b074ce7a080152

Kenya: Foreign health groups cutting services after a White House decision on abortion funding

Foreign health groups cutting services after a White House decision on abortion funding

By Ike Swetlitz @ikeswetlitz
November 8, 2017

It’s been 10 years, but Melvine Ouyo remembers the girl well — a 15-year-old who came into the clinic on the verge of death. She was in shock, suffering from an infection developed after undergoing an unsafe abortion.

“They had to remove the whole uterus to be able to save the life of this girl,” Ouyo said.

Ouyo, 27 at the time, was a nurse-in-training. Now, she works at a sexual and reproductive health clinic in Nairobi, Kenya, which, for the past three years, has provided free health care — from family planning to malaria treatment — in one of the city’s poorest areas, run by an organization supported in part by money from the U.S. government.

Continued at source: https://www.statnews.com/2017/11/08/abortion-usaid-womens-health/

Kenyan health providers call Trump’s global gag rule ‘a death sentence’ for women

Kenyan health providers call Trump's global gag rule 'a death sentence' for women

November 02, 2017
By Traci Tong

We've been given a death sentence." Listen to the Story.

That's how one Kenyan health clinic views President Donald Trump's ban on US federal funding for international groups that provide, support or discuss abortions. Critics call the policy the "global gag rule."

The US already prohibits the use of funds for foreign family planning centers that provide abortions. But the global gag rule goes one step further in that it restricts doctors or other health providers in these centers from even mentioning the word, "abortion," to their patients.

Continued at source: https://www.pri.org/stories/2017-11-02/kenyan-health-providers-call-trumps-global-gag-rule-death-sentence-women

‘It is a death warrant’: Kenyan health experts cross an ocean to talk Trump administration’s gag rule

‘It is a death warrant’: Kenyan health experts cross an ocean to talk Trump administration’s gag rule

By Zach Varda, October 27, 2017

It was a rare occurrence on campus — speakers at the front of the room and none of the students in attendance touched their phone.

That was the scene Thursday night when the #Fight4HER campaign came to Ohio State to speak out against the Global Gag Rule instituted by President Donald Trump. The policy bars any foreign nongovernmental organizations that receive U.S. global health aid from discussing safe, legal abortion with their patients.

“A policy that is literally going to cost hundreds of thousands of lives directly or indirectly,” Lisa Shannon, a long-time advocate for women’s rights in Africa, said in an interview prior to the event. “It is a death warrant.”

Continued at source: https://www.thelantern.com/2017/10/it-is-a-death-warrant-kenyan-health-experts-cross-an-ocean-to-talk-trump-administrations-gag-rule/

Trump Policy Harming Kenya, Uganda Health Services

US: Trump Policy Harming Kenya, Uganda Health Services
October 26, 2017
Expanded ‘Mexico City’ Policy Causing Cuts in HIV, Reproductive Care

On his first full day in office, US President Donald Trump issued an expanded “Global Gag Rule,” or “Mexico City Policy,” which strips foreign nongovernmental organizations of all US health funding if they use funds from any source to offer information about abortions, provide abortions, or advocate liberalizing abortion laws.

(Washington, DC) – Early effects of United States restrictions to global health aid include cuts to essential health services in Kenya and Uganda, Human Rights Watch said in a letter to US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson that was released today. The changes have resulted in a loss of training and equipment from nongovernmental groups for government health clinics, and widespread confusion about implementation. Human Rights Watch sent its findings in advance of a six-month review by the State Department of these funding restrictions.

Continued at source: https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/10/26/us-trump-policy-harming-kenya-uganda-health-services

Kenya: This Is How Trump’s Abortion Policy Will Curb Life-Saving Health Care

This Is How Trump's Abortion Policy Will Curb Life-Saving Health Care

"Many are going to die," warned one impoverished 17-year-old Kenyan woman who nearly lost her life to a back-alley abortion.

By Sophia Jones and Video by Neha Wadekar
Feb 1, 2017

Quinter Atieno was 13 years old when she first sought out a back-alley abortion. Her cash-strapped single mother could barely scrape together enough money to keep food on the table for Atieno and her younger siblings. Faced with the fear of going hungry, Atieno made the difficult decision to trade sex for money.

Soon, she was making enough to help feed her family. But she still could not afford birth control, and the teenager quickly became pregnant. The father of her unborn baby refused to support her. "I could not raise the baby, so I decided to abort," recalls soft-spoken Atieno, now 17, wearing a faded sundress.

Continued at link
Source, Elle: http://www.elle.com/culture/career-politics/a42590/global-gag-order-kenya/