Trump’s Global Gag Rule a blow for women’s rights and lives.

A mere two days after millions of people marched around the word with and in solidarity with the Women’s March on Washington, President Donald J. Trump announced the “Global Gag Rule,” a major blow to women’s rights and human rights worldwide.

Trump’s Global Gag Rule prohibits U.S. international aid to groups that so much as educate their communities on safe abortion. Even if an organization is using non-U.S. funding for such activities, they will lose their U.S. funding if they offer counseling, advocate for legal reform, provide abortions, or even provide referrals at any time.

Foreign NGOs and clinics, many of whom depend on U.S. funding to deliver life-saving healthcare, must choose between two impossible choices: 1) take the funding they depend on but deny the services their communities need and deserve, or 2) refuse U.S. funding and struggle to keep clinics open, offer services, and advocate for laws that reduce unsafe abortions.

This is not the first time the U.S. has imposed such restrictions on foreign aid. Under George Bush, implementation of such policies did not decrease the number of abortions, but increased abortion rates. It also resulted in a sharp decline in availability of contraceptives, and increased rate of maternal death, and increased rate of closed health clinics.

The policy allows for exceptions in cases of rape, incest, and life endangerment, but not for health endangerment or severe or fatal fetal impairment, both mandated by international law as the baseline standards for when abortion must be accessible. What’s more, it’s unclear if services are ever provided under these three exceptions for fear of losing U.S. foreign aid. Trump’s Global Gag means that women and girls who depend on U.S.-funded health facilities may not even hear about the options that may save their lives.

We’ve seen what a lack of access to safe and legal abortion means: in Latin America and the Caribbean, for example, where multiple countries have severe abortion restrictions, including total bans, unsafe abortions and maternal death have spiked, and women could face up to 50-years in jails for miscarriages.

Trump’s Global Gag Rule, in essence and in practice, negates human rights standards for women — mostly poor and rural women — who depend on international aid-funded clinics, healthcare facilities, and organizations. The consequences of Trump’s Global Gag rule are not theoretical: this curtailing of women’s rights will have devastating impacts on women and girls worldwide — from a lack of contraception to an increase of unsafe abortions and maternal death.

It’s a telling sign that only 48 hours after a global outcry for human rights, especially women’s rights, one of the first moves of the Trump administration is to undermine women’s rights worldwide. Now more than ever we must stand up for human rights and against human rights abuses.

Join us, and demand President Trump to choose human rights.

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78 thoughts on “Trump’s Global Gag Rule a blow for women’s rights and lives.

  1. I enjoyed reading your post and agree with your views. I am a 46 year old White and Native American male, I have lived on both sides of the socioeconomic line of middle to upper middle class and poor. I fail to see any value in a president who has shown no interest in: the pursuit of equal rights for women, cheats on his taxes and claims it makes him smart, abuses his/her power to silence any who oppose them, anyone who overturns factual and expert findings for personal financial gain i.e. Dakota Pipeline, continues to put up walls and create further separation of the human race, publicly degrades women (not that it is right in private either), and lastly takes away our civilians right to hold Federal jobs only after he has surrounded himself/herself with unqualified civilian personnel in critical government positions and lastly, any person claims to make America great again, denying all the positive change that so many have worked tirelessly to achieve. We are a great country and yes there are skeletons in our closet, treatment of Native Americans, Native Americans, Japanese Americans, Jewish, Irish, and the treatment of women just to name a few, but in no way should we as a nation allow the concept of moving back in time be considered a positive direction. Donald Trump brings with him not one or two of the above but all of them. I am saddened by this country's inability to recognize a "shyster" who's only real goal in becoming president was to further inflate his ego and status. The Statue of Liberty placard reads "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

      • Hi, Samm– it seems like you're replying to "Tawish" in your reply to "go back to your old home if you don't love it here." I'd first note that Tawish identifies as Native American, meaning his ancestors were the first people here in what is now the United States, so… there's not really a "old home" to go back to since Native people were here first. But most importantly, everyone has the peaceful right to raise their dissent against a government. And we at Amnesty USA believe it is our moral duty to help the U.S. government do better and be more in line with human rights, not simply abandon a place because it's not living up to its human rights obligations. What's more, human rights ARE American values! Our very constitution outlines many human rights protections, and many Americans have long held such values as parallel to, not in conflict with, American identity.

  2. Many thanks to the Netherlands for organizing an international effort to replace lost US funding for sexual and reproductive health services!

  3. Actually i was finding your website. Do you know why because i need some info from you. I hope after reading your info i will get more valuable information form your website.

  4. In Pueblo, Co. USA-and Denver–probably all of Colorado–we are allowed to be raped and murdered. Nineteen of us complained about being raped and molested by a doctor in hospitals in Pueblo, Co. It was known that this doctor was molesting and raping women and nothing was done to stop him. I was tied down and molested and raped on a procedure table. Now I am guilty for wanting justice and have been tortured and abused by doctors. I am now guilty for standing up for Women's Rights. The police destroyed police reports and doctors have tortured me. The District Attorney and Attorney General allow us to be raped and abused by doing nothing to stop abuse but harm us instead. IN the USA this is happening.

  5. I do not support Donald Trump or his views, but in all honesty, in the election between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, there is no good choice. I also would like to point out that the so-called muslim ban only temporarily banned a few majority muslim countries and left 40+ untouched. These banned countries were as extremist hot-spots, it is also key to remember that the ban is temporary and not permanent.

    Women's rights are a very sensitive subject in the politics of today and it is sometimes questioned whether or not women have equality. By rights they do, ever since the seventies, women and other races have had the right to vote, run for office and have a say in the government. Although our president may be stretching the limit a small amount, women in the Middle East and Africa are in dire need of even basic rights and privileges. So instead of holding patreons and gathering donations to a cause that will fix itself, divert those funds to helping those who are oppressed and actually need it.

    I would just like to rap up by stating and re-affirming that I am for equal rights for everyone and I am not a supporter of left-hand feminism and do not support sources such as Buzzfeed or tumblr. Women have the same rights and privileges as men in the U.S.

  6. The Role of Women In Islam
    In the present context, the honor, dignity and rights of women in Islam are very important in Islam. In order to destroy the Muslim Ummah permanently, some of the issues have taken the anti-Islamist powers forward, Most notable among them are the rights of women or women’s independence.

  7. This is probably the most "it actually makes sense" kind of post I've seen on on this subject. Best part… I didn't have to go digging through some weird web design to find it. Awesome! PLEASE keep posting new material!

  8. Children are considered as future of the nation. Education & development of underprivileged children in any nation holds the key to progress of the nation itself whether we are addressing healthcare, poverty, population control or unemployment issues.

  9. It is really interesting why such kind of executive order was mostly the first one after the inauguration. Despite being republican, generally, I can`t support such kind of policy in any of its form. The irony is the US are using their international position (I'm talking about the financing of different organizations by USAID) to dictate their vision of the politics. That is really disturbing. Anyway, thanks Amnesty International for being sensitive and sharp towards such actions of Donald Trump. Hope that your influence at the international level will help somehow to solve this problem.

  10. With all respect, the ongoing issues about legal abortion in the US remain unresolved, including key definitions. For example, many who might be inclined towards the position taken in the article also know that phrases like "health endangerment or severe or fatal fetal impairment" are too ambiguous legally, as US case law has established they could mean "psychological" health (how a woman feels) or trivial preferences ("I don't like the sex of the fetus, therefore it's fatally impared") could be used as a basis for demanding an abortion. The vaguie phrase thus effectively makes such "exceptions" loopholes for full elective abortion, defeating the whole point of creating restrictions. Using words that may be clearly misleading does not contribute to constructively engaging the matter, or attracting others to your side.

  11. Useful summary of the issue, although it seems to assume the "right to abortion" vs "right to life" issue is settled in the US, when it apparently is not, given the election results.

  12. Hello Tarah,
    You have shared very useful & good news for the women as Trump’s Global Gag Rule for their rights and lives. Being as woman, I really appreciates the President’s revolutionary rule for the females which are equal to human rights. Thanks for sharing in-depth article on this rule which prohibits U.S. international help to groups that so much as educate their communities on safe abortion which lethal needy step nowadays. I really feel bad when well-educated & professionals are doing such kind of things, they don’t deserve to any respect from the society.

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  13. We all belong to the same species. So what makes a woman different from a man aside from the obvious ones like the reproductive organs and chromosomes. I think nothing.

  14. Trump's anti-feminine moves don’t only block the progress of gender equality. They have a sinister side-effect: undermining the word of women, making them seem undeserving of trust, thus weakening their voices and their complaints.

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