‘This Policy Has Led to Reduced Access to Critical Health Services’
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Janine Jackson: Put in effect in 1984 by Ronald Reagan, the Mexico City Policy prevents foreign organizations that receive US government funding from performing abortions, even if they are using funds from non-US government sources, and even if abortion is completely legal in their country.
But it’s better known as the “global gag rule,” because it does more: preventing funding for agencies that “counsel, refer or advocate” for abortion, forcing NGOs and healthcare providers to choose between crucial resources and their ability to provide the best care for their patients, including speaking freely about the full range of safe, legal options.
The rule has been revoked and reinstated as the White House has changed parties—until Donald Trump, on his first full day in office, not only put it back, but expanded it categorically. Now the gag rule applies not just to family planning funding, but to all global health funding, some $9 billion a year worth of aid, including that going to projects fighting HIV/AIDS and malaria.
Will Donald Trump’s yet again making a bad thing worse be enough to generate some real scrutiny on this harmful policy? And is proposed new legislation a way to real change?
We’re joined now by Nina Besser Doorley. She’s senior program officer for US foreign policy at the International Women’s Health Coalition . She joins us by phone from Washington, DC. Welcome to CounterSpin, Nina Besser Doorley.
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