Trump Administration Makes Expanded Global Gag Rule Even More Deadly
Trump Administration Makes Expanded Global Gag Rule Even More Deadly, Renames it “Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance”
Today, the U.S. State Department announced plans for implementing President Trump’s vastly expanded Global Gag Rule. All foreign NGOs receiving any U.S. global health assistance will now be forced to choose between receiving U.S. funding and providing comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care.
In addition to burdening organizations receiving family planning and reproductive health assistance, for the first time, providers implementing programs for maternal and child health, nutrition, HIV/AIDS (including PEPFAR), malaria, tuberculosis, infectious diseases, neglected tropical diseases, and water sanitation and hygiene will now be subject to oppressive Global Gag Rule restrictions. This impacts nearly $9 billion in global health assistance for programs at USAID, the Department of State and the Department of Defense.
Trump’s Global Gag Rule impacts about 15 times more U.S. funding and also extends the reach of restrictions beyond NGO grants and cooperative agreements to contracts. This will also broaden the reach of the policy’s already deadly effects, including increasing unintended pregnancies, unsafe abortions, and maternal and child mortality. Previously known within the U.S. government as the Mexico City Policy, Trump’s expanded Global Gag Rule has been deceptively re-branded “Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance.”
“In his campaign to stifle women’s autonomy, Trump’s expanded Global Gag Rule will cause unspeakable damage to integrated care efforts across all health sectors. It will cost many around the world their lives—especially women,” said Suzanne Ehlers, President and CEO of PAI. “Despite the Trump administration’s ludicrous rebranding of the policy, the Global Gag Rule is unmistakably deadlier than ever.”
The expansion of the Global Gag Rule by President Trump threatens to exclude some of the most effective—and in some cases, only—local health providers in 60 low- and middle-income countries. Without funding, these organizations will be unable to provide integrated maternal health care with contraceptive services, HIV prevention, care and treatment services, or counsel women on their potential risks of Zika infection, among many other services, leaving communities and entire health systems devastated.
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PAI champions policies that put women in charge of their reproductive health. We work with policymakers in Washington and our network of partners in developing countries to remove roadblocks between women and the services and supplies they need. For over 50 years, we’ve helped women succeed by upholding their basic rights. To learn more, visit pai.org.
Just two days after President Trump vowed that the United States would “continue to fight for women’s rights and equality across the country and around the world” the Trump-Pence administration commemorated Women’s History Month by doubling down on policies intended to reverse progress on reproductive rights.
The release of the Standard Provisions for Non-U.S. Nongovernmental Organizations outlines the administration’s initial guidance for the implementation of its harmful Global Gag Rule. (This guidance is identical to the March 2001 standard provision.) Although Trump’s Global Gag Rule dramatically expands the scope of the policy to all global health assistance, today’s guidance singles out only those programs that include U.S. family planning assistance. The prioritization of reproductive health programs in this initial guidance makes clear the Trump-Pence administration’s continued efforts to treat women as pawns in its anti-choice game of politics.
Trump’s Global Gag Rule risks women’s health and lives by forcing foreign NGOs to choose between receiving U.S. global health assistance and providing comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care. Providers must agree to not offer—with their own money—legal abortion services, and information or even referrals for abortion services or to advocate for abortion law reform in order to remain eligible to receive U.S. family planning funds.
“In the Trump-Pence administration’s haste to place women in the first line of fire of a grotesque and deadly policy, today’s piecemeal and incomplete guidance will generate disorder and inefficiency among both U.S. and foreign NGOs,” said Jonathan Rucks, Director of Advocacy at PAI.
“It’s hard to overstate how severely the Global Gag Rule will damage local health systems and undercut the work of our foreign NGO partners who provide vital health services to communities. Singling out family planning assistance from the rest of global health assistance will magnify the Global Gag Rule’s dangerous chilling effect and broaden the burden and harm to integrated health efforts.”
Family planning is a vital part of basic health care services and family planning clinics often serve as the entry point for women to access the entire health system. Whether here in the United States or abroad, attacks on family planning under the erroneous pretense of curbing legal abortions puts lifesaving services out of reach for the most vulnerable women. Evidence shows that restrictions imposed by the Global Gag Rule on family planning assistance do not decrease the number of abortions in developing countries, but reduces access to contraception and leads to more unwanted and high-risk pregnancies, unsafe abortions, and maternal illness, injury and death.
With President Trump’s unprecedented expansion of the policy to all global health assistance funding, the Global Gag Rule’s impact on health systems will be more severe and leave countries less able to respond to basic health needs and emerging crises. It remains to be seen how it will apply the policy to other sectors, but one thing is abundantly clear—the Trump-Pence administration is set on attacking women everywhere, no matter the cost.
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PAI champions policies that put women in charge of their reproductive health. We work with policymakers in Washington and our network of partners in developing countries to remove roadblocks between women and the services and supplies they need. For over 50 years, we’ve helped women succeed by upholding their basic rights. To learn more, visit pai.org.