As a follow-up to one of the first executive orders issued by Pr*sident Donald Trump back in January, the State Department made it crystal clear in rules it announced Monday that it’s not just the health and lives of American women that the Trump regime is willing to sacrifice, but that of women across the whole planet.
Adopting the decades-old Republican approach of deceptively naming programs and legislation, this one is called “Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance.”
Critics, however, have long called it the global “gag rule.” First imposed in 1984 by President Ronald Reagan and alternatively known as the Mexico City Policy, the gag rule prohibits funding for any non-governmental organizations that “perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning in other nations.” Merely mentioning abortion is forbidden. Since ‘84, Republican presidents have imposed or reimposed the rule, and Democratic ones have rescinded it.
The latest version of this aggressive indifference to women found in the hard-line parameters the State Department issued makes concrete what critics only feared might be the case as soon as Trump restored the gag rule. The new rule will affect a lot more NGOs and have impacts well beyond reproductive health.
Previously, starting with Reagan, the prohibition of family planning and reproductive health assistance to non-governmental groups performing or promoting abortion only applied to money from USAID and, after 2003, the State Department. But Trump’s executive order in January extended the prohibition to all government agencies and departments, a huge expansion, but one that still left some room for speculation about just how far-reaching the new gag rule would be. Now we know. State’s rules provide the details.
One example of how the new gag rule is different: The Trump version allows for no exceptions. Under President George W. Bush, at least, HIV/AIDS programs were specifically exempted.
Make no mistake. This policy will kill women. It will ruin other women’s lives.
We know this for certain because studies have shown previous iterations to have barred millions of girls and women from access to birth control measures, safe abortions, pre-natal and maternal care.
While this assault on abortion is bad enough, there will be collateral damage. Many of the organizations that handle family planning overseas are integrated health operations also dealing with AIDS, malaria, the Zika virus, and maternal and neo-natal nutrition, among other health matters. Cutting off funding for even mentioning abortion is reprehensible, lethal meddling lobbied for by organizations who pretend to be concerned about women’s health. For instance, under the Trump regime’s rules, no organization receiving U.S. funds could advise a pregnant woman infected with the birth defect-causing Zika virus about her options, including abortion.
Molly Redden reports:
“We know that when family planning services and contraceptives are easily accessible, there are fewer unplanned pregnancies, maternal deaths, and abortions,” said Senator Jeanne Shaheen on Monday. “Yet the Trump administration has chosen to ignore decades of research in favor of an ideological crusade that cuts off vital family planning services.”
Immediately after Trump issued executive order four months ago, NGOs and other women’s advocates had to speculate what this expansion would mean. No more scrambling for clarity now. The State Department-issued rules mean that $8.8 billion in federal aid is in play. Under George W. Bush, the figure was only around $600 million.
In support of this myopic policy, proponents have long claimed that it reduces abortions. Therefore, totally justified in the twisted minds of the forced birthers. But that claim may well be bunk. Here’s Redden again:
A study of nearly two dozen countries in sub-Saharan Africa found that the abortion actually rate rose during the George W Bush administration in countries affected by the ban.
For IPPF, the Bush-era policy resulted in a significant loss of funds that affected its programs for years. One IPPF member association, a group that provided family planning and HIV services in Ethiopia, lost 10% of its USAID funding and 25% of its funding from IPPF. As a result, Ethiopia experienced a major contraceptive supply crisis, a spokeswoman for IPPF said.
The gag rule is yet another example of misogyny on steroids.