Global Health Policy

The global gag rule, reinstated and expanded by President Donald Trump, is putting abortion access at risk worldwide. (Credit: Ted Eytan, Feminist.org) It is apparently not enough to restrict abortion access in the U.S. – President Donald Trump and his administration are now attacking reproductive rights around the world. As part of Team Trump’s blitzkrieg strategy of threatening rights and protections via a deluge of executive orders and other announced policy measures, they have reinstated what is called the global gag rule, which prevents foreign nongovernmental healthcare providers who receive U.S. aid from offering abortive care, referrals or even information about the procedure to patients. It was first enacted by President Ronald Reagan in 1984, and rescinded by every Democratic administration since, including President Joe Biden’s. During Trump’s first term, he had expanded the program significantly, so that organizations receiving any form of financial assistance from the U.S. (initially it was just grant recipients) would see their funding revoked. With Trump back in office, he has seen it reinstated once more. In addition to endangering lives – a direct result of reducing or denying abortion access anywhere – it’s a significant blow to gender equality efforts overall, reproductive justice organizers say. “The reinstatement and expansion of global gag rule is a direct assault on the health and human rights of millions of people around the world,” Rachana Desai Martin, chief government and external relations officer at the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a press release. “We saw the devastating impact of this policy during the last Trump administration, when contraception and vital reproductive services were cut off.” Those effects include “a spike in pregnancy-related deaths, reproductive coercion, and gender inequality worldwide,” Martin continued. “Many clinics and health programs shuttered, leaving vulnerable populations with nowhere to get birth control, pregnancy care and other vital health services.” Indeed, reinstatement of the rule can and will also harm efforts to mitigate the spread of HIV and to provide contraception to sexually active patients. “The cost of reimposing this rule will be paid in hardship, human lives and a reversal of some of the most important gains in the HIV response,” Beatriz Grinsztejn, president of the International AIDS Society, said in a statement. In all, billions of dollars in aid now hang in the balance, depending on recipient organizations’ willingness to comply with the refreshed Trump edict. “The United States is a vital partner to healthcare providers and organizations around the world, and robbing those frontline providers of their ability to provide the full spectrum of reproductive healthcare, and even information about people’s options, will result in people losing their lives to pregnancy complications,” Rebecca Hart Holder, president of Reproductive Equity Now, told The Guardian.

Global Health Policy

The Trump Administration is Attacking Abortion Care Abroad

The Story Exchange

Global Health Policy

The Trump Administration is Attacking Abortion Care Abroad

The Story Exchange

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