United States Blocks Global Funding for Sexual and Reproductive Rights. Again.

Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights
Jan 27, 2025

In his first week in office, Donald Trump reinstated the Global Gag Rule, re-igniting a crisis for global health and reproductive rights. This policy restricts non-US organizations from receiving US international assistance if they provide, educate, refer or advocate for safe abortion, even with resources from other donors.

First introduced in 1984 under President Ronald Reagan, the Global Gag Rule is a policy that has been repeatedly repealed and reinstated depending on the U.S. administration. Research shows that this policy increases maternal mortality, reduces access to contraception, and pushes people toward unsafe abortions.

Continued: https://www.actioncanadashr.org/news/2025-01-27-united-states-blocks-global-funding-sexual-and-reproductive-rights-again

‘Gagging’ Abortion Access: The Global Threat of Trump’s Second Term to Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare

Ahead of Trump’s second term, 100+ international civil society organizations have joined together to demand the permanent repeal of the global gag rule.

1/20/2025
by Shoshanna Ehrlich

On the first anniversary of the Dobbs decision, Trump proclaimed he was “proud to be the most pro-life president in U.S history.” As he boasted on social media, this self-conferred accolade undoubtedly reflected his greatest antiabortion ‘accomplishment’—namely, that “50 years of failure, with nobody coming even close, I was able to kill Roe v. Wade … and for the first time put the Pro Life movement in a strong negotiating position over the Radicals that are willing to kill babies even into their 9th month, and beyond.”

As well documented by the media, Trump’s second term presents a grave domestic threat to essential sexual and reproductive healthcare, which has already been decimated across wide swaths of the country. Considerably less attention, however, has been paid to the devastation his presidency will unleash worldwide when he undoubtedly reinstates the global gag rule, as it is anticipated he will do as a “day one” priority.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2025/01/20/trump-mexico-city-policy-global-gag-rule-abortion-us-foreign-aid/

20.01.2025

Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance

Anti-abortion states are targeting an emergency healthcare law. Will the supreme court side with them?

Justices to rule whether abortion bans should undo Emtala, the Reagan-era law requiring hospitals to treat emergency patients

Jessica Glenza
Sun 21 Apr 2024

One of the only universal rights to healthcare in the US is to be treated in the emergency room – a place where doctors are required to stabilize patients if their future health or life is in serious jeopardy.

That right, guaranteed by the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, known across the country by healthcare professionals as Emtala, was borne out of what was once a common practice called “patient dumping” – transferring patients who could not pay from private hospitals to public counterparts, even in emergency situations.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/law/2024/apr/21/emtala-supreme-court-abortion

How Sandra Day O’Connor upheld abortion rights on the Supreme Court

Cassie Buchman
DEC 1, 2023

(NewsNation) — Thirty years before the overturn of Roe v. Wade, Sandra Day O’Connor, who died Friday at the age of 93, was instrumental in keeping abortion legal at the federal level during her tenure.

In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Roe v. Wade, deciding that abortion was federally protected in a 7-2 vote. The New Yorker writes that there was immediate backlash from the Christian right, with many leaders seeking to reverse the ruling.

Continued: https://www.newsnationnow.com/politics/supreme-court/how-sandra-day-oconnor-upheld-abortion-rights-on-the-supreme-court/

01.12.2023

News

Akron v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health

Planned Parenthood v. Casey

Roe v. Wade

Ronald Reagan

Sandra Day O'Connor

Webster v. Reproductive Services

Supreme Court Conservatives Plot A Liberal Apocalypse In 2022

A grim year of judicial rulings awaits liberals on abortion, affirmative action, guns, the administrative state and more.

By Paul Blumenthal
01/29/2022

The Supreme Court’s six-member conservative supermajority will flex its muscle in a series of high-profile cases in 2022 that will agonize liberals while fulfilling some of the wildest dreams that have eluded the conservative movement since it came to power with Ronald Reagan’s 1980 presidential election.

The changes anticipated to abortion, affirmative action, gun rights, school prayer, rights of criminal suspects and the federal administrative state could transform U.S. law and upend American politics. This moment is the fruition of a decadeslong strategy by conservatives to seat justices willing to overturn elements of the New Deal order and rights revolution of the 1960s and ’70s that presidents and Congresses could not through executive action and legislation.

Continued: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/supreme-court-2022-term_n_61f42070e4b04f9a12bcef52

What Is The Global Gag Rule & How Does It Affect Abortion Access Around The World?

Alice Broster
Feb 8, 2021

It’s been estimated that between 2015 and 2019 around 121 million unintended
pregnancies occurred around the globe. Of those, 61% ended in abortion. This
equates to around 73 million abortions every year. This can mean very different
things depending on where you live. For a termination to be considered safe it
should be carried out by someone who is trained and in an environment that’s
clean. For many people, this isn’t an option. So, what is the global gag rule?
It’s been reported that President Biden will end the U.S. government's efforts
to restrict access to reproductive rights and healthcare around the world
through the Mexico City Policy, AKA the global gag rule.

Continued: https://www.forbes.com/sites/alicebroster/2021/02/08/what-is-the-global-gag-rule--how-does-it-affect-abortion-access-around-the-world/

Biden’s Catholic and supports abortion rights. It puts him in the majority of American Catholics.

One his first acts will be to end the "global gag rule." Many of our faith have seen the harm that reproductive rights restrictions cause in the world.

Jan. 22, 2021
By Jamie Manson, president, Catholics for Choice

President Joe Biden, like his Democratic predecessors, will reportedly mark the early days of his tenure by overturning the "global gag rule," a policy dating to the presidency of Ronald Reagan that prevents all international organizations that receive U.S. foreign aid from advocating for abortion access in their own countries or providing clients with abortion services, referrals to other organizations that provide abortions or even information about the existence of legal abortion programs.

But while it could be seen as the typical action of a Democratic president — the rule is lifted every time a Democrat replaces a Republican in the White House, only to be reinstated when a Republican wins the presidency — it's particularly notable to some commentators this time because Biden is a practicing Roman Catholic, and only the second to win the presidency after John F. Kennedy.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/biden-s-catholic-supports-abortion-rights-it-puts-him-majority-ncna1255215

Nigeria – Abortion: Seeking exceptions to the Global Gag Rule

By The Rainbow
Aug 13, 2020

Nana, 14, wakes up petrified. It is 5:30 a.m. She was supposed to be up by 4:00 a.m., but was deep asleep and did not hear her angry aunt howling for hot water to bath with.

Though scared, she slowly and quietly walks into the kitchen, greeted her aunt, but the response was discomforting.

“Are you just waking up?'' Mrs. Alfred growled. “I am sorry,'' Nana muttered, shaking.

Continued: https://www.thenigerianvoice.com/news/290739/abortion-seeking-exceptions-to-the-global-gag-rule.html

The Anti-Abortion Movement Was Always Built on Lies

The Anti-Abortion Movement Was Always Built on Lies

This week, it was revealed that Norma McCorvey, a.k.a. “Jane Roe,” admitted on her death bed that her late-career anti-abortion crusade was all a ruse funded by the Christian right. Laura Bassett takes a hard look at the house of cards the American anti-abortion movement was built upon.

By Laura Bassett
May 20, 2020

In 1973, the plaintiff “Jane Roe” brought a case to the Supreme Court that would legalize abortion throughout America. So it was quite a surprise when, in the mid-1990s, Roe, whose real name was Norma McCorvey, suddenly emerged as an anti-abortion activist. She wrote a book about her change of heart, spoke at multiple annual March for Life rallies, and even filed a motion in 2003 to get the Supreme Court to re-decide her case. “I deeply regret the damage my original case caused women,” she said at the time. “I want the Supreme Court to examine the evidence and have a spirit of justice for women and children.”

Continued: https://www.gq.com/story/jane-roe-anti-abortion-lies/

USA – Why the abortion debate won’t die

Why the abortion debate won’t die
Many culture wars are winding down — but not this one

Mary Ziegler
February 1

The controversy surrounding William Barr’s confirmation as attorney general has mostly focused on his expansive views of executive power. But Barr’s views on social issues have also come center stage. After serving as attorney general under President George H.W. Bush from 1991 to 1993, Barr penned an essay calling on Catholics to fight abortion and to “restrain sexual immorality, obscenity, or euthanasia.”

For the most part, time seems to have passed Barr by. As marriage rates continue to decline, nonmarital cohabitation has spiked, especially among those over 50. In 2017, the number of Americans who saw divorce as morally acceptable hit an all-time high. Internet pornography is everywhere, and more than 40 percent of Americans find it morally acceptable.

Continued: https://www.thelily.com/why-the-abortion-debate-wont-die/