Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last week announced that the Trump administration will expand the Mexico City Policy, better known as the Global Gag Rule. The rule, which President Trump immediately reinstated upon taking office, bans USAID or State Department funding to organizations that discuss or provide abortions. One group of health officials called it a “death sentence” for women. Research consistently finds that the policy increases unintended pregnancies, harms women and girls, and drives international maternal mortality.
Expanded Global Gag Rule Will Limit Relationships Between NGOs
As abortion clinics in the United States face increasingly onerous regulations, the Trump administration has set its sights on controlling abortion in other countries. According to Pompeo, the newly expanded Mexico City Policy will limit the relationships that healthcare providers which receive U.S. funding can have with one another. NGOs that give financial funding to other groups that provide or discuss abortion can no longer receive U.S. funds. This could radically change the way many clinics operate, and force them to end partnerships or reduce services.
The current incarnation of the Global Gag Rule affects about $8.8 billion in healthcare funding.
How the Global Gag Rule May Increase the Abortion Rate
Proponents of the rule claim that it reduces the abortion rate. The research says otherwise. Policies designed to force women to keep their pregnancies do not reduce abortions. In fact, they may actually increase them. In Latin America, where abortion is illegal, the abortion rate is more than three times that of the United States. Perhaps even more alarming, suicide has become a leading cause of maternal death.
When abortion goes underground, it becomes less safe. At least 44,000 women die each year from unsafe abortion. About half of abortions performed worldwide are unsafe.
By prohibiting NGOs from even mentioning abortion to women, the U.S. government is helping to drive the epidemic of abortion-related deaths. It may also be forcing impoverished women and girls to remain in horrifying situations. The Turnaway Study, which looked at the effects of being denied an abortion, found that women who are prevented from having abortions are more likely to live in poverty and remain in abusive relationships. In impoverished and war-torn regions, these effects are likely even more severe.
The Trump Administration knows all of this. The effects of the Mexico City Policy are not an accidental byproduct. They’re not the creation of an inept administration that doesn’t care who it harms. They are deliberate. Anti-choice politics have never been about protecting life. Otherwise anti-choicers would care about women dying from illegal abortions, and of preventable pregnancy-related complications.
This is about punishing women, especially the poorest and most vulnerable women.