By Jamila Taylor and Jonathan Rucks |
Getty/Yasuyoshi Chiba Four girls are seen in a town in northeast Uganda, January 2018.
(Photo credit: Center from American Progress
A little more than one year ago, President Donald Trump imposed and expanded the Global Gag Rule. The Global Gag Rule is a policy that has historically blocked foreign nongovernmental organizations that engage in abortion advocacy or offer abortion-related information, referrals, and services, from receiving U.S. international family planning funding.
Notably, under the policy, exceptions are only allowed in the cases of rape, incest, and endangerment to the life of the woman. Yet Trump’s expansion has gone well beyond the confines of its already-harmful previous scope to encompass all U.S. global health assistance. Now, the policy affects almost $9 billion in funding for vital programs that serve the world’s most vulnerable populations.
This policy does not exist in a vacuum. Shortly after imposing the Global Gag Rule, President Trump defunded the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA), the primary U.N. agency working to advance family planning and reproductive health around the world—including in places enduring humanitarian crises.
Source: News Now | Center for American Progress
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