Trump reversed policy banning aid to groups abroad that provide abortions
The Mexico City Policy and Abortion Rights of Sub-Saharan Africa: Restored after the November 1991 Presidential Reionization
The Mexico City Policy, which bars U.S. aid to groups that provide abortion services in other countries, was restored on Friday.
The global gag rule forbids discussion of abortion with patients, meaning that groups that want abortion rights call it that. It “silences what organizations can even say about abortion in their own countries,” says Elizabeth Sully, principal research scientist at the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights.
Supporters of the rule say that it encourages healthcare providers in lower resource countries to focus on alternatives to abortion — for example, education on family planning and maternal care during pregnancy.
“It prioritizes what developing countries actually need, which is real development assistance not the promotion of coercive or controversial agendas,” says Elyssa Koren, the legal communications director for ADF International, an advocacy group that opposes abortion rights.
In the 41 years since the policy was first instituted, every newly elected Democratic president has negated it and every newly elected Republican president has reinstated it. On Day 3 of his administration, Trump brought the policy back.
The announcement did not mention the U.S. government’s sole funding of the program, called PEPFAR. NPR asked for clarification from the State Department and officials from PEPFAR, but they did not respond. A source who asked for anonymity because they are not permitted to speak about the matter confirmed that the stop on work applies to the entire program. USAID is the agency primarily responsible for administering humanitarian and development aid.
Groups that want to continue offering abortion counseling or services have in the past lost their U.S. funding. The Marie Stopes International charity offers contraception and abortion services in 36 countries. Their director told NPR that they had to stop offering free contraceptives and shut down some of their clinics because the U.S. aid had stopped.
An analysis on contraceptive and abortion rates in sub-Saharan Africa under presidents Bill, George and Barack Obama was published in the medical journal The Lancet. The policy was in effect during Bush’s years in office but was revoked by Clinton and Obama.
As NPR wrote back in 1991, abortion rates could have changed for reasons unrelated to the funding policy of the US. But in an effort to factor out that possibility, the researchers divided the 26 countries into two groups: In the first were countries that received the highest amount per person of U.S. family planning aid. In the second group were the countries that received the lowest amount.
Speaking to NPR for coverage of the 2019 study, Connor Semelsberger, then with the Family Research Council which has long supported the Mexico City policy, says he finds the study unconvincing because it did not delve into what he argues are key data points — such as which aid groups were operating in the affected countries and how much the amount of U.S. aid changed during the years studied. “I was really looking for more information,” he says.
On Friday, the State Department issued a cable putting into action the January 20th executive order from President Donald Trump that will halt virtually all U.S. foreign assistance for at least 90 days pending a review of all programs. The only exceptions are emergency humanitarian assistance and military financing for Israel and Egypt.
Jeremy Konyndyk is the president of the aid group Refugees International and was a top official with the agency when it was in the Obama and Biden administrations. “As written, the stop-work order does not exempt global health programs,” Jeremy Konyndyk wrote to NPR in an email.
Unless an exemption is declared in the days or weeks ahead, PEPFAR faces a pause in operations for at least three months — a development that sent shock waves through the global health community.
The millions of people currently on US-funded HIV/AIDS treatment would be jeopardized if this were to happen.
Hundreds of contractors at the global health bureau of the US Agency for International Development could be put out of work temporarily because of the freeze on spending.
If this were to happen, the stop-work period would leave the workers unsure of their employment status for the duration of it, leaving them with years of experience and knowledge.
“There is no room for waiting for the 90-day freeze,” said Asian Russell of Health GAP, and on the AIDS crisis in the world
The order was unexpected for many in the global health sector. “Many people assumed the 90-day freeze would not apply to forward looking funding and that it was just for forward looking funding”, Asia Russell of Health GAP told NPR.
She said that it would be harmful enough, but an immediate cessation was more cruel. He is doing terrible things to the global AIDS response.
