Expanded Mexico City Policy to Allocate $9B for Global Health Services That Refuse to Provide Abortions Mythili Sampathkumar - Independent UK
go to original May 15, 2017

A student of a girls’ school in Port-au-Prince walks by a mural by graffiti artist Jerry Rosembert depicting the suppression of women in Haiti (Patrick Farrell)

Donald Trump is dramatically expanding the federal government’s support for health care organizations that agree to not provide abortion services to the tune of nearly $9bn.

The State Department is ready to announce a program, called “Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance,” which will reportedly get $8.8bn to fund non governmental organizations around the world that comply with the "global gag" rule, which states that no organization receiving US money can promote or discuss abortion services, even if they are using foreign funds to do so.

The rule is also known as the Mexico City policy, named for the location of a 1984 United Nations conference where President Ronald Reagan announced the policy.

The money will come from the US State Department, the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Defense Department according to CBN News.

Mr Trump reinstated the rule from the George W. Bush administration, which prevents any foreign organization receiving US funds from providing or even discussing abortion services with women.

The rule also prevents any foreign organization receiving US funds to work with any abortion service providers.



... This means that an organization in a developing country that provides anti-malaria medication or other preventable disease care with US money they could be excluded from receiving any global health assistance funds if they offer or even speak about any type of abortion services with patients.

Mr Trump’s version of the global gag rule left what many experts estimated was a $600 million gap in abortion and family planning services that other countries’ aid agencies and private donors would need to fill.

Read the rest at Independent UK

>Related: 'Women and Children Will Die' Because of Donald Trump's Global Gag Rule, Charities Claim (Independent UK)

Related: Health Sector Prepares for Antiabortion Policy’s Impact on HIV/AIDS Fight (WSJ.com)

Related: Trump’s Women’s Health Statement Is Full of Hypocrisy (Newsweek)

Related: After a “Fascinating, Terrifying” 100 Days, Reproductive Rights Activists Are Planning Next Moves (The Progressive)

Related: Doctors Without Borders Statement on the Reinstatement of the Mexico City Policy on Abortion (MSF USA)

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