In one of his first acts as President, Trump issued an executive order reinstating the Global Gag rule that bars U.S. assistance to foreign organizations that provide or promote access to abortions.

 

“I am deeply disturbed over the reinstatement of the Global Gag Rule (also known as the ‘Mexico City Policy’) which stipulates that foreign NGOs receiving U.S. family planning funding cannot inform the public or educate their government on the need to make safe abortion available, provide legal abortion services, or provide advice on where to get an abortion, even when it is legal within their own countries,” says Sarah Costa, Executive Director of the Women’s Refugee Commission.

The Global Gag Rule forces foreign organizations to choose between accepting U.S. funding or providing critical access and information on reproductive health care to tens of millions of women around the world.

In the past, the negative impact of the gag rule has been broad and severe: clinics that provide a basic, lifesaving  maternal and child health care services have been forced to close; and access to contraceptives were severely limited, resulting in more unintended pregnancies and more unsafe abortions.

The gag rule has been instituted by every Republican president since Ronald Reagan, and rescinded by Democratic presidents.

The Women’s Refugee Commission denounces the reinstatement of this harmful rule. A woman’s access to safe reproductive health care shouldn’t be subjected to the vagaries of U.S. policy.

Contact: Mary Ellen Egan, maryellene@wrcommission.org