A report issued by the Trump administration has found widespread compliance with the Mexico City Policy. This significantly reduces women’s access to accurate, comprehensive healthcare counseling. Some analysts say it could kill women.
Since Ronald Reagan’s administration, every Republican president has promptly instated the Mexico City Policy—known colloquially as the global gag rule. The policy prohibits clinics that offer abortion services or that tell women about these services from receiving U.S. funding for other services. The Trump version of the policy extends its prohibition even further, covering clinics that offer services unrelated to family planning. Under the Trump version, a clinic that offered vaccinations or emergency care to children would lose funding if it also told a child rape survivor about abortion services.
Forcing Clinics to Sacrifice Women for Politics: Report on Compliance With Global Gag Rule
About 1,300 global organizations receive U.S. funding for various healthcare services. The report reviews about half of these clinics. It found that just four had opted to sacrifice U.S. funding and continue talking to women about their full range of reproductive health options. This suggests a significant rollback of women’s access to comprehensive healthcare.
Notably absent from the report was any analysis of the policy’s effects. It does not provide information on whether the policy has reduced poor people’s access to healthcare. Nor does it offer details on any effect the policy has had on an already skyrocketing maternal mortality rate.
A ‘Death Sentence’
The policy has been widely criticized by public health advocates. A group of Kenyan health providers called the rule a “death sentence” for women. Providers cite concerns about rape victims being forced to carry their pregnancies to term, and about its effect on the fight against HIV/AIDS.
Research has consistently shown that banning abortion or limiting access does not lower the abortion rate. It kills women instead. In El Salvador, an abortion ban quickly made suicide a leading cause of maternal death. Research from Latin America suggests abortion bans might actually increase the abortion rate.
Legal abortion is safer than almost every medical procedure, and exponentially safer than pregnancy. Illegal abortions can be deadly. When women cannot access safe, legal abortions, they may turn to unsafe illegal abortions. About half of abortions performed worldwide are considered unsafe, due in large part to poor access to quality care. These unsafe abortions kill 47,000 women each year.
The Trump Administration’s War on Women
The Trump administration continues to support restrictions on abortion in the United States, with numerous abortion clinics facing draconian regulations that could ultimately put them out of business. Yet the administration has done nothing to halt the maternal mortality crisis in the U.S. The U.S. has the highest rate of pregnancy-related deaths in the developed world.