Donald Trump, during a photo op with his all-male group of advisers, signed an executive order that will have far-reaching consequences for women’s reproductive health access around the worlds.
President and his men just attacked women’s reproductive health access around the world
Trump’s executive order reinstates what is known as the Mexico City policy, which is also known as the global gag rule, a policy was first put in place by President Ronald Reagan in 1984.
The Trump executive order prohibits giving any U.S. funding to international nongovernmental organizations or aid groups that offer or advise people on reproductive health and family planning options if they include abortion. That means that organizations will not receive U.S. aid funding even if U.S. money is not specifically used for abortion-related services.
The United States currently spends about $600 million a year on international aid for reproductive health and family planning programs. And none of that money is spent on performing abortions, because the Helms amendment has prevented U.S. tax dollars from funding overseas abortions since 1973.
However, the current U.S. funding is making it possible for 27 million women around the world to access contraceptive and other reproductive health services.
Severe implications for millions of women around the world
The World Health Organization estimates that more than 21 million women a year have unsafe abortions in developing countries which account for roughly 13 percent of all maternal deaths.
And Donald Trump’s executive order will have very severe implications including potentially deadly consequences for women and girls in developing countries who often resort to dangerous methods of ending their pregnancies when they lack access to safe abortion.
