Global Anti-Abortion Coalition Targets the Organization of American States

The conservative backlash against efforts to expand sexual and reproductive rights in the Americas threatens a dangerous regression in human rights.

Lynn M. Morgan
June 4, 2021

It has been a good year for Latin American sexual and reproductive rights movements. Costa Rica became the first Central American country to legalize same-sex marriage in May 2020, and Argentina legalized abortion in December 2020. The Biden-Harris administration moved quickly in 2021 to rescind former President Trump’s Mexico City policy, also known as the global gag rule; disband former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s Commission on Unalienable Rights; and renounce the Geneva Consensus Declaration, which included the assertion that there is “no international right to abortion.” Optimists note a wave of support for sexual and reproductive rights in Mexico, Chile, Colombia, and elsewhere in the hemisphere.

Continued: https://nacla.org/news/2021/06/04/global-anti-abortion-coalition-targets-organization-american-states

How Trump’s latest efforts to stop abortion increasingly undermine global health

How Trump's latest efforts to stop abortion increasingly undermine global health
Canada recently committed a record amount toward safe abortion services. Will that be enough to combat the impacts of the US' revised ‘global gag rule’?

By: Urooba Jamal
July 16, 2019

The dilemma for a health organization is hard to fathom.

In 2018, two young women died at the hands of knitting needles and other everyday objects in Kenya, where seven women die each day in an attempt to induce an abortion on their own, bereft of safer options.

Even two years earlier, their deaths might have been prevented. But a local organization that would have previously referred them to abortion provision services was forced to choose between giving sexual and reproductive healthcare advice or signing a “global gag rule” and stopping that program, in order to continue to provide HIV services to its 10,000 clients.

Continued: https://www.opencanada.org/features/how-trumps-efforts-to-stop-abortion-are-undermining-global-health-programs/

16.07.2019

Global Health Empowerment and Rights Act

International Women's Health Coalition

Open Society Foundation

Organization of American States

Population Action International

Preston Mitchum

Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance

sexual and reproductive health and rights

SheDecides

Siljander Amendment

Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency

United Nations Population Fund

Trump Administration Expands Assault on Global Abortion Access

Trump Administration Expands Assault on Global Abortion Access

April 18, 2019
Nina Besser Doorley

In March, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced two significant escalations in the Trump administration’s attacks on sexual and reproductive rights globally: a new expansion to the already-devastating Global Gag Rule and the unprecedented use of the Siljander Amendment to attack funding for a multilateral organization, the Organization of American States.

While the latest expansion to the Global Gag Rule has been well publicized, the use of the Siljander Amendment—an obscure legislative provision that prohibits the use of US funds for abortion-related lobbying—to cut more than $200,000 in US funding to the Organization of American States (OAS) has received less attention. Nonetheless, the use of this provision sets a dangerous precedent by attempting to force global human rights bodies to bow to US political pressure.

Continued: https://iwhc.org/2019/04/trump-administration-expands-assault-on-global-abortion-access/

Penny Mordaunt says UK will defend abortion rights amid global pushback

Penny Mordaunt says UK will defend abortion rights amid global pushback
Development secretary vows government will ‘hold a strong line’, after attempts by Trump administration to weaken commitments

Liz Ford
Tue 9 Apr 2019

Britain’s international development secretary has promised to stand firm in her support for abortion rights in the face of growing opposition.

Speaking at an event hosted by the Canadian embassy on Monday, Penny Mordaunt said: “Leadership means not shying away from issues like safe abortion when the evidence shows us these services will save women’s lives.”

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/apr/09/penny-mordaunt-says-uk-will-defend-abortion-rights-amid-global-pushback-trump

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