- Comprehensive Sexual and Reproductive Health
- Family Planning
- Women, Girls, and HIV
- Maternal Health
- U.S. Foreign Policy & Funding
- Watch: Making U.S. Foreign Assistance Work for Women and Girls in Ethiopia
- Global Health Initiative
- Integrating HIV/AIDS and Sexual and Reproductive Health: U.S. Foreign Policy
- Female Condoms: Dual Protection
- Global Gag Rule
- Helms Amendment
- Foreign Assistance Budget
- Foreign Assistance Reform
- Kemp-Kasten Amendment
- Abstinence & Fidelity
- Anti-Prostitution Pledge
- The Critical Role of Advocacy in Foreign Assistance
- Why Women and Girls?
Global Gag Rule
First put in place from 1985 to 1993, the Mexico City Policy (Global Gag Rule) stipulates that nongovernmental organizations receiving U.S. assistance cannot use separately obtained non-U.S. funds to inform the public or educate their government on the need to make safe abortion available, provide legal abortion services, or provide advice on where to get an abortion. The policy did allow for exemptions in the cases of rape, incest, and the life of the mother, but not for a woman’s physical or mental health.
Documentation and analysis of the impact of the Global Gag Rule has shown that the policy restricts a basic right to speech and the right to make informed health decisions, as well as harms the health and lives of poor women by making it more difficult to access family planning services. It has also been found that the policy does not reduce abortion.
President Barack Obama repealed the provision on January 23, 2009. His statement called for a new approach to family planning, one that would end the politicization of women’s health around the world. Since the repeal, advocates have been working to ensure that future presidents cannot reenact the policy without the approval of Congress.
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August 17, 2010
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- Sexual and Reproductive Rights and the U.S. Global Health Initiative
The U.S. Global Health Initiative (GHI) is a comprehensive policy approach that seeks to strengthen, streamline, and increase the efficiency of existing U.S. global health funding programs—to achieve greater impact with every dollar. - What Does Family Planning Have to do With HIV? Everything.
Voluntary family planning is an indispensible component of HIV prevention and treatment. - Fact Sheet: Global Democracy Promotion Act of 2011
The Global Democracy Promotion Act of 2011 provides that the U.S. Foreign Assistance Act cannot impose eligibility restrictions on international recipients of U.S. aid that would be illegal if imposed nationally. Would constitute a legislative repeal of the Mexico City Policy, also called the Global Gag Rule. - Female Condoms and U.S. Foreign Assistance: An Unfinished Imperative for Women’s Health
Female Condoms and U.S. Foreign Assistance: An Unfinished Imperative for Women's Health, summarizes U.S. support for female condoms, identifies barriers, and offers concrete recommendations for improving U.S. efforts to increase access and availability of female condoms. - Fact Sheet: Global Sexual and Reproductive Health Act
The Global Sexual and Reproductive Health Act (H.R. 1319) establishes U.S. policy and authorizes assistance to support universal access to sexual and reproductive health care in developing countries, including contraception and safe abortion. - Policy Recommendations: Married Women and HIV: Comprehensive Prevention
In the absence of community-based efforts to alter the social structures that promote infidelity, public health programs which aim to reduce married women’s risk by telling men to be faithful will not succeed. - Research Summary: Marital Sex and the HIV Risk for Women Worldwide
Globally, women’s risk of contracting HIV is heightened if they are married, largely due to men’s extramarital sexual relationships. Despite this clear risk, current efforts to prevent the spread of HIV fall far short of protecting married women. - Human Trafficking, HIV/AIDS, and the Sex Sector
Current U.S. foreign policy relating to adults in the sex sector violates basic human rights, distracts from effective anti-trafficking efforts, and directly impedes global health programs intended to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS.
Related Links
- Americans for UNFPA
- Center for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA)
- Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR)
- ForeignAssistance.gov
- International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF)
- International Women’s Health Coalition (IWHC)
- Ipas
- PEPFAR Watch
- Population Action International (PAI)
- Prevention Now!
- Reproductive Health Matters
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