“The Trump administration just announced an extreme and far-reaching policy restricting foreign aid that amounts to a supercharged global gag rule. As we spend time reviewing and understanding the implications of these rules, there is no doubt that the goal is to sow uncertainty, fear and chaos. This policy exports harsh US abortion bans and ideologically driven mandates to countries around the world, interventions that also threaten a range of health services and equity initiatives.”
“This iteration of the global gag rule marks a new escalation in the administration’s ongoing efforts to erode reproductive health and rights. Unprecedented actions like the dismantling of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and rescission of US foreign assistance for family planning services around the world have already had devastating results. Guttmacher research estimates that almost 50 million women and girls have already been denied contraceptive care in low- and middle-income countries due to these draconian actions. In addition, the global gag rule, which was imposed during the first Trump Administration, has had far-reaching impacts on patients, health systems and services—devastating outcomes that this policy will only magnify.”
“This new radical policy threatens to aggravate the cumulative harms of earlier administration actions, undermining decades of bipartisan investment in global health and gender equality, and stripping resources from the world’s most vulnerable populations, including LGBTQ+ communities around the world. This global gag rule is about control and using foreign aid to impose a cruel anti-human rights ideology on the world.”
“In the face of more chaos, the Guttmacher Institute will continue tracking these multi-pronged attacks and calling for vital policy changes—including permanent repeal of the global gag rule and restoration of US family planning aid—to ensure people have access to the reproductive health care they want and need.”