FEATURE: She Decides!!! A global initiative to challenge the hegemony of the US government in funding family planning and abortion
March 10, 2017, by Safe Abortion
The story to date
On 22 January 2017, the Global Gag Rule was reinstated by Donald Trump the day after he took office. (See the Campaign newsletter report of 27 January which outlines the history of the Gag Rule, which goes back 32 years, the consequences it had for NGOs in the past and the current picture.)
Six short weeks later, on 3 March 2017, as reported in the PAI Washington Memo of 7 March, USAID had inserted a new section Mexico City Policy (March 2017) into the guidance governing USAID funding to NGOs outside of the USA that is "applicable to all awards that include family planning funds".
A notice to USAID headquarters and field staff stated that this new section will be inserted into all new USAID family planning assistance grants and cooperative agreements, and also into existing agreements “when such agreements are amended to add incremental funding”. Thus, it will not be applied to already existing grants, but only if new funding is added to them or for new grants. The notice emphasises that the Gag Rule does not apply to agreements with foreign governments or multilateral organizations, consistent with implementation during the previous Bush administration. However, the US government has other policies with similar restrictions for the governments and inter-governmental agencies it funds, such as UNFPA. And unlike the Gag Rule, which was rescinded under Clinton and Obama, these other policies have been operative non-stop for decades.
Continued at source: International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion: http://us12.campaign-archive1.com/?u=c02a095d6213ac4bd2aed2e81&id=bd2731fc6d&e=3fa4c971b0