Trump expected to quickly revive ‘global gag rule’ on abortion

by Alejandra O’Connell-Domenech
01/19/25

President-elect Trump is expected to reinstate a controversial policy soon after taking office that would further bar foreign nongovernmental organizations that perform, counsel on or provide information on abortions abroad from receiving U.S. funding.

The Mexico City Policy, referred to as the global gag rule by its opponents, was first introduced during the second Reagan administration and has been rescinded by every Democratic president and reinstated by every Republican president since then. Trump previously restored the policy four days into his first term before President Biden rescinded it again a week into his own.

Continued: https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5092735-trump-abortion-mexico-city-policy/

The Terrifying Global Reach of the American Anti-Abortion Movement

Conservatives have not limited their attack on reproductive rights to the United States. They’ve been busy imposing their will on other countries, too—with disastrous consequences for millions of poor women.

Jodi Enda
March 18, 2024

Because Editar Ochieng knew the three young men, she didn’t think twice when they beckoned her into a house in an isolated area near the Nairobi River. One was like a brother; the other two were her neighbors in the sprawling Kenyan slum of Kibera.

Ochieng did not know the woman who performed her abortion. She and a friend scoured Nairobi until they found her, an untrained practitioner who worked in the secrecy of her home and charged a fraction of what a medical professional would. Mostly, what Ochieng remembers is the agony when this stranger inserted something into her vagina and “pierced” her womb. “It was really very painful. Really, really, really painful,” she told me. Afterward, Ochieng said, she cut up her mattress to use in place of sanitary pads, which she could not afford. She was 16 years old.

Continued: https://newrepublic.com/article/179485/american-anti-abortion-movement-terrifying-global-reach

18.03.2024

Bethany Van Kampen Saravia

Biden Amendment

Caitlin Ryan Horrigan

Center for Women and Work

Council for Global Equality

Family Life Association of Eswatini

Feminist for Peace Rights and Justice Centre

Fòs Feminista

Foundation for AIDS Research

Geneva Consensus Declaration

Initiative for Strategic Litigation

Institute for Women’s Health

Marjorie Dannenfelser

maternal deaths

Mexico City policy

Mike Pence

MSI Reproductive Choices

Nelly Munyasia

Nerima Were

PEPFAR

Planned Parenthood Federation of America

Population Action International

population control

President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief

Project 2025

Reproductive Health Network Kenya

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America

Terry McGovern

Torchlight Collective

Trust for Indigenous Culture and Health

U.N. Fund for Population Activities

U.S. Agency for International Development

Half a million abortions in Kenya every year, despite ban? Yes – and decade-old estimate still relevant

Most of the 500,000 terminations are unsafe, prompting Ghetto Radio host Maji Maji to ask if abortion should be made legal in Kenya.

Published on 24 August 2021

Radio celebrity Julius Owino, known as Maji Maji, recently made a startling claim to start off a discussion about abortion in Kenya.

“500,000 abortions hizo uhappen Kenya [happen in Kenya] nationwide, according to statistics,” he said on Ghetto Radio.

Continued: https://africacheck.org/fact-checks/reports/half-million-abortions-kenya-every-year-despite-ban-yes-and-decade-old-estimate

Nigeria – Healthcare Givers Free To Access Global Funding With GAG Rule Repeal —PAI

By Sade Oguntola
On Apr 8, 2021

Following the withdrawal of the Global Gap rule by President Joe Biden, groups and stakeholders into reproductive and sexual reproductive health have been urged to come forward to access global funding for supporting provision of comprehensive health services for women in Nigeria.

Director, Policy and Advocacy at Population Action International (PAI,) Mr Jonathan Rucks, speaking at the virtual training for media practitioners on “Global Gag Rule Rescindment: Implications and Next Steps” by IPAS in collaboration with PAI stated that the four years of US President Donald Trump’s administration global gag rule had globally led to increase in the cases of unsafe abortion and poor health of women.

Continued: https://tribuneonlineng.com/healthcare-givers-free-to-access-global-funding-with-gag-rule-repeal-pai/

African countries are trying to liberalize their abortion laws. Trump’s ‘global gag rule’ is making that difficult.

African countries are trying to liberalize their abortion laws. Trump’s ‘global gag rule’ is making that difficult.
Activists say the policy has forced some countries to take a step backward

Abigail Higgins
March 5, 2020

In 2016, churches in the small southeastern African country of Malawi did something surprising: They backed a law to expand abortion access.

At the time, Reverend Alex Benson Maulana, chair of the Malawi Council of Churches (MCC), said that abortion was still a sin. But Malawi was also facing a crisis: In a country with one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world, 18 percent of those deaths were due to unsafe abortions.

Continued: https://www.thelily.com/african-countries-are-trying-to-liberalize-their-abortion-laws-trumps-global-gag-rule-is-making-that-difficult/

Win or Lose, Trump’s Policies on Women’s Health Inflict Damage

Win or Lose, Trump’s Policies on Women’s Health Inflict Damage

February 25, 2020
by Barbara Crossette

Whether or not Donald Trump will be re-elected president on Nov. 3, a tough debate is likely to begin soon in the United States Congress over the national budget for the unpredictable year ahead. Reproductive health issues rank high on the agenda for women’s rights advocates.

Trump’s proposed budget would continue to restrict funds for reproductive health sharply, including family planning, to suit the antichoice crowd that is apparently considered an important vote bank. These funds, moreover, would be limited to bilateral aid to allies and other supportive nations. These “friends of Trump” are expected to be active in the annual session of the Commission on the Status of Women, beginning on March 9 at the United Nations in New York. They include Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Brazil, some diplomats say.

Continued: https://www.passblue.com/2020/02/25/win-or-lose-trumps-policies-on-womens-health-inflict-damage/

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’s reinstatement and expansion of the global gag rule has harmful effects for women, men, and children

Trump’s reinstatement and expansion of the global gag rule has harmful effects for women, men, and children

Jan 11, 2019
Yana van der Meulen Rodgers, Ernestina Coast, and Nicky Armstrong

Two years ago this month, President Trump reinstated and expanded the global gag rule – the perennial Republican policy which cuts US funding for any organisation worldwide which offers abortion services or counselling. Yana van der Meulen Rodgers, Ernestina Coast and Nicky Armstrong argue that not only will the measure – which covers a pot of nearly $10 billion in funding for NGOs – be ineffective in reducing the number of abortions, it will also harm women’s’ reproductive health as well as making other crucial health services less available to women, men, and children around the world.

Who influences whether women in poorer countries can access abortions and other sexual health services? It may surprise you, but the US president has an important part to play. This is because of the so called “global gag rule”(GGR), a US foreign policy that cuts family planning and reproductive health assistance to any healthcare provider overseas which offers and provides abortions.

Continued: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/2019/01/11/trumps-reinstatement-and-expansion-of-the-global-gag-rule-has-harmful-effects-for-women-men-and-children/

11.01.2019

Commentary

Featured

News

abortion funding restrictions

amfAR

AMODEFA

Barbara Crane

Center for Health and Gender Equity

Ernestina Coast

family planning services

Foundation for AIDS Research

Mozambican Association for Family Development

Nicky Armstrong

PEPFAR

Population Action International

President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief

Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance

World Health Organization

Yana van der Meulen Rodgers

Nigeria – ‘Global Gag Rule affecting NGOs’

‘Global Gag Rule affecting NGOs’
Posted By: OYEYEMI GBENGA-MUSTAPHA
May 4, 2018

Olayide Akanni is the Executive Director of Journalists Against AIDS (JAAIDS) Nigeria, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) on the prevention, care and control of HIV, AIDS and tuberculosis. In this interview, she tells OYEYEMI GBENGA-MUSTAPHA how the Mexico City Policy, also called Global Gag Rule (GGR), introduced by the United States government will affect NGOs.

She has worked in many non-governmental organisatons (NGOs) over the years. Ms Olayide Akanni worked, among others, on Journalists Against AIDS (JAAIDS), African Civil Society Coalition on HIV/AIDS in promoting HIV/AIDS and TB treatment literacy, building capacity for media and civil society groups, and monitoring universal access to prevention, treatment and care services.

Continued: http://thenationonlineng.net/global-gag-rule-affecting-ngos/

US abortion funding rule hurting health overseas, aid groups argue

US abortion funding rule hurting health overseas, aid groups argue

By Nicole Gaouette, CNN
Thu March 8, 2018

Washington (CNN)Less than a year after the Trump administration moved to cut funding for international organizations that provide women's reproductive health care and abortions, aid groups report they are beginning to see a host of negative impacts.

In Nigeria, health groups found greater difficulty accessing contraception, reduced access to health services, and an increasingly hostile environment for sexual and reproductive health rights.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/08/politics/global-gag-early-health-impact/index.html