Trump's anti-abortion global gag rule harming women in Africa and Asia, report says

Trump’s anti-abortion global gag rule harming women in Africa and Asia, report says

‘People are dying as a result of the policy’ that bans aid to foreign groups who provide or promote abortions, says author of report


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Activists rally to protest the Trump administration’s ‘global gag rule’ on NGOs on 29 March in Washington DC. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

The Trump administration’s anti-abortion restrictions on US global health aid funding have significantly damaged health care for women in Africa and central Asia, according to a new report.,Restrictions on funding also include limiting access to funds for sex education, and shifting funds to anti-LGBTQ and pro-abstinence groups such as Focus on the Family, researchers say.

The “Crisis in Care” report from the International Women’s Health Coalition outlines the two-year impact of the Trump administration’s “global gag rule” which prohibits funding to international NGOs which do not sign a pledge saying they will not provide or promote abortions as a method of family planning. The rule applies to an organization’s non-US funded activities too, regardless of the local laws regarding abortion. “I think the most impactful and glaring thing is that people are dying as a result of the policy,” said Vanessa Rios, pointing to a case in Kenya in which two women died from unsafe abortions – one used knitting needles – after a sex-worker organization stopped providing abortion information or referrals.

The new report, built on 118 interviews with community health organizations in Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa and Nepal, portrays an international health community grappling with confusion over the gag rule’s implementation, increased stigmatization of reproductive health services, and a ripple effect that is closing or fragmenting critical health services. It also illustrates the international implications of intensifying efforts in the US, primarily in Republican-dominated state legislature, to roll back abortion access.

(What is the 'global gag rule'?
The rule, otherwise known as the Mexico City policy, requires NGOs to certify that they will not perform or promote abortions anywhere in the world as a condition for receiving US family planning funds. Every Republican president since 1985 has implemented it. But in 2017, Donald Trump adopted a stringent version of the rule, under which NGOs that refuse to sign will be refused all health assistance, including for HIV, primary care, nutrition, tuberculosis and malaria programs. As much as $8bn in US funding could be affected – money that developing world health budgets can ill afford to do without.)

Though every Republican president since Ronald Reagan has implemented the gag rule, which is imposed by a presidential memo, the Trump iteration expands the amount of money susceptible to the order, and has implications for funds for a wide array of global health concerns such as malaria, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and nutrition. According to the new report, adherence to the gag rule now applies to $9bn in US foreign aid and extends to many organizations that previously did not have to comply with the policy. The escalation of the gag rule, the report says, has led to confusion among international providers as to what services and advice they can offer, and increased fear that a wrong step will jeopardize vital funds.

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https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/jun/05/trump-global-gag-rule-anti-abortion-harms-women-africa-asia-report