‘You can’t just remove the damage of the last four years’

Reproductive rights groups cautiously welcome Biden's reversal of Trump's abortion access restrictions

By Kara Fox and Nicole Gaouette, CNN
Sat January 30, 2021

For more than four years, countries that rely on American foreign aid have been reeling from the profound impact that Donald Trump's reinstatement of the Mexico City policy has had on women.

The policy, known as the "global gag rule" among opponents, prevents non-government organizations that provide abortions, give counseling about abortions, or advocate for safe access to abortion from receiving US funding.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/30/world/biden-abortion-mexico-city-policy-intl/index.html


Biden starts rolling back Trump anti-abortion rules

Executive orders aim to put new administration's reproductive rights stamp on the global stage.

By ALICE MIRANDA OLLSTEIN
01/28/2021

President Joe Biden signed a series of executive orders on Thursday aimed at rolling back some of the Trump administration’s most far-reaching abortion restrictions, including one denying U.S. aid to health groups abroad that provide information about the procedure.

The actions will begin restoring federal support to abortion providers and organizations that offer abortion counseling while promoting the new administration's reproductive rights agenda on the global stage.

Continued:  https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/28/biden-trump-anti-abortion-rules-463347


Trump left international abortion rights in shambles, activists say. Can Biden undo the damage?

Biden vowed to repeal the ‘global gag rule,’ but Trump’s ‘anti-woman rhetoric’ isn’t necessarily going away

Urooba Jamal
Jan. 19, 2021

In 2019, Melvine Ouyo, a health policy expert and reproductive rights activist, attended a conference in her city of Nairobi, where antiabortion campaigners were protesting the event. Shortly after that, Ouyo said, she met a pregnant 14-year old girl who had no information about how she could access a safe abortion if she chose.

Ouyo said she believes that if the Trump administration’s “global gag rule” — a U.S. foreign aid policy that restricts funding for abortion-related services — had not been in place, the campaigners wouldn’t have had such a prominent platform, and the girl would have had more information about her reproductive health options.

Continued:  https://www.thelily.com/trump-left-international-abortion-rights-in-shambles-activists-say-can-biden-undo-the-damage/


KENYA – The global gag rule on abortion and reproductive health care must be repealed

The global gag rule on abortion and reproductive health care must be repealed

By Ami Bera and Melvine Ouyo, Special to The Sacramento Bee
February 19, 2020

Last month marked three years since President Donald Trump reinstated and expanded the Global Gag Rule, jeopardizing life-saving global health programs and making it even harder for people in developing countries to access crucial reproductive health care – care that we know saves lives.

Under this abhorrent policy, health care providers are barred from receiving desperately-needed financial assistance if they offer abortion-related services or counseling – even if they offer those services with non-U.S. funds.

Continued: https://www.sacbee.com/opinion/op-ed/article240397506.html


The Effects of the Global Gag Rule Are Being Felt Everywhere

The Effects of the Global Gag Rule Are Being Felt Everywhere

Jul 2, 2018
Melvine Ouyo & Alexa Henderson

In Kenya, desperate pregnant women and girls who lack access to safe medical care because of funding cuts under Trump’s global gag rule are turning to "curtain clinics” to terminate their pregnancies. Such clinics are run by people who aren’t nurses or doctors.

The fallout of Trump’s global gag rule is upon us. Not a single week passes in Kenya without devastating media reports documenting how patients are going without needed reproductive health care and medical intervention thanks to the U.S. policy restricting funds to international clinics that discuss pregnancy termination regardless of the circumstance. The global gag rule is forcing health providers to either ignore that challenge or lose desperately needed aid for other services.

Continued: https://rewire.news/article/2018/07/02/effects-global-gag-rule-felt-everywhere/


Kenyan clinic loses Sh200m in US aid over Trump abortion policy

Kenyan clinic loses Sh200m in US aid over Trump abortion policy

Thursday May 3 2018
By KEVIN J. KELLEY

Kenya's longest-established family planning clinic has lost 60 per cent of its budget for defying a Trump administration policy forbidding women's health providers from offering information or services related to abortion.

Family Health Options Kenya has been forced to close one of its 14 clinics and curtail services at others due to US funding cuts amounting to Sh200 million ($2 million), Washington-based National Public Radio (NPR) reported on Wednesday.

Continued: https://www.nation.co.ke/news/Kenyan-clinic-choked-by-Trumps-gag-rule/1056-4543310-lrggua/index.html


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’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/


Impact of ‘global gag rule’ goes beyond abortion for these health groups in Kenya

Impact of ‘global gag rule’ goes beyond abortion for these health groups in Kenya
Dec 19, 2017

The so-called global gag rule, which cuts off some U.S. government aid to health agencies that offer or mention abortion services, has been reinstated by every Republican president going back to Reagan. But the Trump administration has gone much further, cutting all funding to groups that offer vital health care services in places like Kenya. Special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro has the story.

(7:37 minute video, and full transcript)

Continued at source: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/impact-of-global-gag-rule-goes-beyond-abortion-for-these-health-groups-in-kenya


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/