|
Global Gag Rule
U.S. Restrictions on Global Democracy and Sexual and Reproductive Health and
Rights
Officially known as the Mexico City Policy, the Global Gag Rule was a policy of the United States government that barred any foreign organization receiving U.S. foreign assistance from using its own funds or funds from other donors to perform abortions; advocate for the liberalization or decriminalization of abortion in laws and policies; or provide information, make referrals, or counsel women on the procedure—even in countries where abortion is legal.
On Friday, January 23rd, 2009, President Obama repealed the Global Gag Rule.
Read the Center for Health and Gender Equity's press release applauding President Obama's decision to repeal the Global Gag Rule.
Read the Presidential Memorandum.
HEALTH: Obama Lifts "Global Gag Rule", by Jim Lobe, Inter Press Service, January 23, 2009.
Background
The Mexico City Policy was created in 1984 by the Reagan Administration. The Administration announced the new restriction on U.S.foreign aid at the International Conference on Population and Development in Mexico City, Mexico. The policy was in place until 1993, when, as his first act in office, President Bill Clinton overturned it. On January 22, 2001, President George W. Bush issued a Presidential Memorandum reinstating the Mexico City Policy; it was his first act as President. On January 23rd, 2009, President Barack Obama overturned the policy once again.
Consequences for Women’s Health and Democracy
Approximately 500,000 women die from pregnancy-related causes each year. According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), some 74,000 women die each year from unsafe abortions.
In addition, an estimated 201 million women have an unmet need for family planning. The highest unmet need is in Sub-Saharan Africa where one in four married women wants to limit or space her births, but does not have access to the services to do so. This lack of access to family planning results in 80 million unintended pregnancies each year. While the repeal of the Mexico City Policy is significant, increased funding for international family planning and other sexual and reproductive health services is also critical to ensuring effective U.S. foreign assistance.
For many decades, the U.S. has played an important and leading role in providing aid to developing countries to assist them with sexual and reproductive health (through family planning assistance) and population issues. The U.S. government has been a major donor to non-governmental organizations that provide vital family planning services to millions of individuals and couples in developing countries so that they have a full range of information and services to decide the number, spacing and timing of their children, free from coercion or violence.
The Global Gag Rule, however, undermines these goals. The policy is not simply about restricting abortion overseas. The Global Gag Rule also prohibits organizations that provide information and services related to abortion from receiving U.S. contraceptive supplies, such as female and male condoms, birth control pills, intra-uterine devices, and other medically effective methods of contraception. As a result, service providers must either comply with the policy or forgo much-needed family planning supplies.
Of the 80 million unintended pregnancies each year, sixty percent end in abortion. The Global Gag Rule ties the hands of trained reproductive health care providers because family planning organizations receiving U.S. funds can neither perform abortions for their clients nor advise women on where to seek the procedure. As a result, women often cannot turn to trained doctors and nurses for safe medical care. They are therefore left to find their own care, which often means an unsafe, illicit abortion. Globally, sixteen women die every hour from unsafe abortion.
Restrictive government laws on abortion often force the practice underground, contributing to the morbidity and mortality rates associated with unsafe abortion. Instead of fostering civil society's participation in government and promoting democratic values, the Global Gag Rule undermines rights such as freedom of speech and assembly-rights Americans enjoy-by prohibiting international organizations from working with their governments to create less restrictive abortion laws and ensure safer medical practices.
Furthermore, the Global Gag Rule infringes on patients' right to make informed decisions about their health by barring doctors and health care workers from telling women about all pregnancy-related options available to them.
Learn more about the Consequences of the Global Gag Rule at the Country Level
Read "The Global Gag Rule harms democracy, women and U.S. interests abroad," Ipas, Center for Health and Gender Equity,
Population Action International, Center for Reproductive Rights,
Pathfinder International, Catholics for Free Choice, International Planned Parenthood Federation WHR, and NARAL, 2007.
Visit Access Denied, a project of Ipas, Population Action International, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, International Planned Parenthood Federation, EngenderHealth, and Pathfinder.
Read "International Reproductive Health and Family Planning: U.S. Funding Priorities and Policy Implications," Center for Health and Gender Equity, 2009.
Read "Putting Politics Before Public Health: The Global Gag Rule," International Women's Health Coalition, April 2009.
Read "Global Gag Rule: A Flawed Policy That Sacrifices Women's Lives," NARAL ProChoice America, January 23, 2009.
Read "The Global Gag Rule: Undermining Women's Health and US Foreign Policy," Pathfinder International, January 2009.
Read "The Global Gag Rule: Playing Politics with Women's Lives," Planned Parenthood, 2007.
Read "Exporting Despair: The Human Rights Implications of U.S. Restrictions on Foreign Health Care Funding in Kenya," Hoodbhoy, Mehlika et al., Fordham International Law Journal, Vol 29:1, January 2006.
Read "Breaking the Silence: The Global Gag Rule's Impact on Unsafe Abortion," Center for Reproductive Rights, 2003.
Legislative Actions to Repeal and Restrict the Global Gag Rule
Although President Obama has repealed the Global Gag Rule by executive order, the rule warrants a full legislative repeal. The Global Gag Rule is an ideologically-based policy that restricts a basic right to speech and the right to make informed health decisions and harms the health and endangers the lives of women around the world. A legislative repeal would ensure that future administrations cannot politicize women's health by reinstating the rule.
The Global Democracy Promotion Act
The Global Democracy Promotion Act has been introduced by Senator Barbara Boxer in the Senate as S. 311. Though the Global Democracy Promotion Act does not mention the Global Gag Rule or Mexico City Policy by name, the bill's intent and effect would be to repeal the policy.
The Global Gag Rule in the News
•Funding Restored to Groups That Perform Abortions, Other Care, by Rob Stein and Michael Shear, The Washington Post, January 24, 2009.
•Gag (Rule) Me, by Simon Heller and Vivien Labaton, Huffington Post, September 7, 2007.
•Democrats Pass Provision for Contraceptives in House Foreign Aid Bill, Move Is First Challenge To Antiabortion Riders, by Elizabeth Williamson, Washington Post, June 22, 2007.
•Bush's War on Women, by Kira Cochrane, New Statesman, January 29, 2007.
Sign up for updates on the Global Gag Rule and other international sexual and reproductive health policy concerns from the Center for Health and Gender Equity.
|
