PIH Opposes Reinstatement of the Global Gag Rule

Reproductive justice is a human rights issue. 

Partners In Health strongly opposes President Trump’s executive order to reinstate the Mexico City Policy or “Global Gag Rule.”  

This policy has a dangerous impact on fundamental rights and the health of women, girls, and pregnant people across the world and will disproportionally affect those who are already systemically marginalized. It also undermines clinicians’ duty to provide comprehensive care.  Life-saving abortion services, and information regarding such services, cannot be separated from reproductive health needs. 

Historically the policy required foreign nongovernmental organizations to certify that they will not “perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning” using funds from any source as a condition of receiving U.S. government global planning funding. In 2017, President Trump significantly expanded the scope of the policy to apply to all U.S. global health aid given directly to other countries. On January 24, the Trump Administration reinstated this expanded policy.  

Over decades, the Global Gag Rule has been shown to decrease contraceptive and outreach services, damage health system integration and referral networks, and weaken advocacy for reproductive justice. 

The reinstatement of this harmful policy will have negative impacts across entire health systems, such as reducing essential training and equipment to provide safe abortion care even when needed to save a woman’s life. Subsequently, this leads to a reluctance from clinicians to provide necessary care following unsafe abortions, which are the third leading cause of maternal mortality worldwide according to WHO. Studies show that these restrictions decrease the provision and use of contraception, increase unintended pregnancy, and increase abortion rates, and are also associated with increased maternal and child mortality rates and increased HIV rates.  

Under international law, all people have a human right to make their own choices about whether and when to have children. Further, the Global Gag Rule effectively restricts fundamental rights to information and expression. In order to protect the sexual and reproductive health and rights of people around the world, the Global Gag Rule needs to be permanently repealed.