What to expect from Trump 2.0: The anti-rights brigade are now in power

We're hurtling into a dark period for abortion rights and beyond. Get out your flashlights

Dr Anu Kumar
20 January 2025

With Trump 2.0, the US enters a new era – one where people’s rights, particularly those of women and girls, LGBTQIA+ people, Black or brown people, or immigrants, are ignored, or worse, violated. Climate change is not a concern. Disinformation is rampant. Reproductive freedom, particularly the access to abortion, is radically curtailed, despite broad voter support.

Most of us are familiar with (and frankly, are already experiencing) the Project 2025 playbook, which calls for dismantling democratic norms in the US, unitary executive power, harsh Christian nationalism, a punitive approach to foreign assistance and multilateralism, and violations of human rights. We're hurtling into a dark period. Get out your flashlights.

Continued: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/trump-project-2025-abortion-rights-inauguration/

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to as the global gag rule by its opponents, was first introduced during the second Reagan administration and has been rescinded by every Democratic president and reinstated by every Republican president since then. Trump previously restored the policy four days into his first term before President Biden rescinded it again a week into his own.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

France’s Veil abortion law leaves positive but fragile legacy, 50 years on

France on Friday marks 50 years since the law decriminalising abortion came into effect. Since then, the law has undergone numerous updates to reflect changes in society and was even enshrined in the Constitution in March 2024. But despite these advances, advocates warn that access to abortion remains fragile in practice.

Issued on: 17/01/2025
By: Ollia Horton with RFI

The law to decriminalise abortion was proposed by then-health minister Simone Veil in November 1974. She was one of only nine female MPs at the time and faced enormous pressure – and abuse – during the 25-hour parliamentary debate.

"I never imagined the hatred that I would unleash," Veil later said, recalling how some lawmakers likened abortion to the Holocaust – of which Veil was a survivor, having been deported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps.

Continued: https://www.rfi.fr/en/france/20250117-veil-abortion-law-leaves-positive-but-fragile-legacy-50-years-on

17.01.2025

News

conscience clause

enshrining abortion rights in constitution

France's abortion law

La Fondation des Femmes

Biden declares Equal Rights Amendment adopted, sparking a debate about his abortion legacy

The move has no immediate legal force but will likely spark lawsuits that advocates hope will restore abortion rights.

By Alice Miranda Ollstein
01/17/2025

President Joe Biden’s Friday announcement declaring the Equal Rights Amendment part of the U.S. Constitution is reviving long-simmering tensions in the abortion-rights movement about the outgoing president’s legacy on reproductive rights.

The last-minute move, three days before the end of Biden’s term, has sparked arguments between Biden’s defenders and his detractors over its significance, since even the White House acknowledged the announcement does not have the force of law. And the president’s declaration is also fueling a broader debate about whether Biden did enough to prepare for and respond to the fall of Roe v. Wade.

Continued: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/01/17/biden-era-abortion-legacy-00199115

The GOP Plot to Bankrupt Planned Parenthood

By Susan Rinkunas
Jan 15, 2025

Despite the crucial fact that federal money cannot be used for abortions, Republicans have been trying to cut off all sources of federal funding to Planned Parenthood since 2007. The money the health care organization receives through various government programs covers birth control, sexually transmitted infection testing, and cancer screenings, but archconservatives want to shut down the country’s largest abortion provider by excluding it from these programs. Donald Trump pledged to anti-abortion groups during his 2016 and 2020 campaigns that he would “defund” the organization. It’s possible that Republicans for the first time in years have a plausible path to this longtime goal and Trump might not even need to act.

Continued: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/01/gop-plot-bankrupt-planned-parenthood-abortion-trump.html

Opinion: 5 ways to thrive despite Trump’s anti-abortion global gag rule

The global development community has been through a cyclical U.S. ban on foreign assistance for abortion services before — and we can be resilient to it again.

By Beth Schlachter
13 January 2025

Donald Trump intends to sign “100 executive orders” shortly after taking office on Jan. 20 — one of which is expected to be the “global gag rule.” Reinstated by every Republican U.S. president since Ronal Reagan, this policy states that no organization can receive U.S. foreign assistance if they provide abortion services or information, advocate for abortion, or refer someone to abortion care.

Trump’s signature on the global gag rule has the potential to be a death warrant for many women. Contrary to its stated intent of “protecting life,” organizations such as the one I work for, MSI Reproductive Choices, have documented that it does the opposite. When women and girls are denied fundamental reproductive health services, unintended pregnancies, unsafe abortions, and maternal deaths increase.

Continued: https://www.devex.com/news/opinion-5-ways-to-thrive-despite-trump-s-anti-abortion-global-gag-rule-109024

13.01.2025

International Planned Parenthood Federation

Ipas

MSI Reproductive Choices

Russia’s ‘Year Of The Family’ Has Meant A War On Abortion And Divorce

January 13, 2025
By Current Time and Chris Rickleton

With Russian President Vladimir Putin declaring 2024 the Year of the Family, the pressure was on lawmakers and local governments to go the extra mile.

They didn't disappoint.

From an intensifying campaign against abortions, new "family studies" classes for schoolchildren, and tougher hurdles to get divorced, last year saw Russia invade new territory in its fight for "traditional family values."

Continued: https://www.rferl.org/a/33273068.html

13.01.2025

News

childfree propaganda

Nina Ostanina

Russian Orthodox Church

special demographic operation

traditional family values

Polish opposition presidential candidate “can’t currently see Ukraine in NATO” and opposes ending abortion ban

Jan 9, 2025
Notes from Poland

The presidential candidate supported by Poland’s main conservative opposition party has said that he currently “does not envision Ukraine in the EU or NATO”. He also pledged to veto any attempts by the government to end the current near-total ban on abortion or to introduce same-sex civil partnerships.

Karol Nawrocki’s remarks have prompted criticism from the prime minister, Donald Tusk, who says the opposition should be “ashamed” of his views on Ukraine. Meanwhile, Tusk’s candidate for the presidency, has described Nawrocki’s views on abortion as “medieval”.

Continued: https://notesfrompoland.com/2025/01/09/opposition-presidential-candidate-cant-currently-envision-ukraine-in-nato-and-opposes-ending-abortion-ban/

09.01.2025

Iran launches hotline to discourage abortions

Jan 9, 2025

Iran's health ministry has introduced a hotline aimed at dissuading citizens from having abortions as the theocratic system attempts to confront slowing population growth.

"Trained individuals help callers keep their pregnancies and decide against abortion," the head of the ministry's Center for Population Growth, Saber Jabari, said Thursday.

Continued: https://www.iranintl.com/en/202501099418

09.01.2025

Basij Medical Society

Center for Population Growth

hotline to discourage abortion

Reading the Warning Signs: How Trump’s Administration Could Crack Down on Abortion

Trump’s boasts about returning control over abortion to the states may well prove to be a stopgap measure en route to a blanket ban.

Jan 8, 2025
by Shoshanna Ehrlich

During the presidential campaign, Trump forcefully avowed he did not support a national abortion ban—a position consistent with two-thirds of the electorate—gloating instead that he was responsible for sending the issue back to the states where it belongs. He also distanced himself from the “virally unpopular” Project 2025—the far-right playbook for the next conservative administration.

However, warning signs suggest that Trump may have been pandering to the electorate on both scores. Notably, when his remarks on the campaign trail about a national ban are considered alongside his existing ties to Project 2025, his boast about returning control over abortion to the states may well prove to have been stopgap measure en route to a blanket ban … although perhaps by way of a back-channel strategy.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2025/01/08/trump-administration-doj-bondi-abortion-pill-comstock-act-mifepristone/