GJC's Vice President and Legal Director, Akila Radhakrishnan, and UN and EU Director, Stephanie Johanssen were quoted in Humanosphere about Nikki Haley’s addressing the Human Rights Council and rumors the US will withdraw from the Council.
In May, the Trump administration announced an updated policy greatly expanding the Global Gag Rule. This will have a drastic effect on $8.8 billion in US health care aid. As a result, millions of women and girls around the world will lose access to contraception and maternal health care. Hundreds of clinics serving in-need populations around the world will be forced to close. Women will die.
For more, please read my recent Op-Ed piece published in Ms. Magazine, on how to fight this odious policy.
GJC's President, Janet Benshoof wrote a piece for Ms. on Trump's $8.8 billion expansion of the Gag Rule and the fight against US abortion restrictions.
We saw this coming. In January when Trump first took office as an anti-choice president, he immediately re-instated the Global Gag Rule. We knew there was more to it and yesterday with his newest policy, “Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance,” Trump confirmed that he has expanded these anti-abortion restrictions to impact $8.8 billion in global health assistance. This expansion is unprecedented.
We are ready. We are fighting back.
We are not in the same place we were when the Gag Rule was instated by Reagan or Bush. We will not let Trump take us backward. We can and do demand radical change against policies that are deadly to women and do no respect the lives of women.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — May 15, 2017
[NEW YORK, NY] - Today, Donald Trump is announcing a new policy entitled “Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance." This policy will massively expand the Global Gag Rule by drastically increasing the amount of global health assistance funds and government programs that will be covered, affecting some $8.8 billion dollars. In the past the Global Gag Rule has been limited to overseas family planning assistance only. This new policy is said to cover a broad range of funds for global health, including maternal and child health, HIV/AIDS, malaria and family planning.
