The Global Gag Rule: A Moment of Pride
- Kate Hamill
- Jan 25, 2017
- 4 min read
Hey, do me a favor. Look at the photo attached to this post. Look at those rich men, standing there – they sure look pleased with themselves, huh?
They are signing a piece of paper that is a virtual death sentence for some of the poorest, most vulnerable women in the world. They are condemning families and communities to cycles of poverty and misery. They are ensuring the spread of lethal diseases in countries that do not possess the infrastructure to combat those diseases.
... no wonder they look so proud!
On January 23rd, “President” Trump – I air-quote his title to emphasize that he is currently short by 3 million votes and I want him to remember that every day of his life, preferably right when he wakes up – enacted the Global Gag Rule. This is only one of several horrifying things he has done in his first few days in office, and it’s easy to become overwhelmed by the sheer volume of iniquities. But I’m just going to quote straight from the New York Times here, to emphasize why this is a particularly galling and immoral act (emphasis added):
It has been illegal to fund abortions as a method of family planning with U.S. money since 1973, but the gag rule pulls other family planning funding — for H.I.V. prevention or contraception, for example — if an organization even advises a patient on where to get an abortion. President Trump’s rule goes even further, and pulls all global health assistance, including for programs that address infectious diseases like malaria, Zika and Ebola.
Whenever this rule is instated — always by Republican presidents — health clinics around the world are often forced to close their family-planning programs because they are dependent on funding from the United States. Not providing abortion counseling to patients because of the political agenda of a donor means abandoning a standard of care that women rely on for basic health needs.
Here are some facts and figures on the impact of the last Gag Rule from Engender Health, which studied the act’s consequences around the world. Hint: THESE CONSEQUENCES ARE VERY BAD. Amongst them:
20 developing countries lost basic contraceptive aid, leading to increased rates of STDs, including HIV.
Clinics and organizations were forced to lay off staff, reduce services, or cease operations.
It significantly increased maternal mortality rates, since suddenly a lot of women started dying from... yes... illegal abortions.
And – this is the kicker – IT DID NOT EVEN LEAD TO FEWER ABORTIONS. The Global Gag Rule, in every study, never once reduced abortions. It DID lead to INCREASED abortion rates, since women suddenly lost access to contraceptives when clinics closed.
... isn’t that ironic? All these men are smugly congratulating themselves on a piece of paper that will not accomplish its proclaimed purpose. It will, however, ruin or end a lot of people’s lives. Good one, fellas – you really scored some points here!
No, no, I should try to be fair: it is tempting to focus on the symbolism of this moment. Two days after women and their allies repudiated Trump in what may be the nation’s largest-ever protest, he acted to shut down women’s rights. But I truly don’t think Trump did it out of spite; I think the timing is a coincidence.
I think Trump signed this paper not as a repudiation of the Women’s March, but because he’s a profoundly ignorant misogynistic narcissist with neither moral compass nor compassion, and his anti-woman, anti-choice, advisors have been persistently tongue-bathing him over this issue. Trump himself waffled considerably on choice (he was actively pro-choice for a time and there are persistent rumors about his personal experiences with abortion) before his minders and the GOP leadership made it clear that you can buy an awful lot of power by selling out women and poor people. And because Trump has no compunctions about hypocrisy or consistency or morality – and because he has little-to-no imagination about the devastation wrought by his actions – he signed the executive order.
...was that fair?
Women will suffer. Their families will suffer. Communities will suffer. But hold that paper up, guys. Smile for the camera. Let us see how proud you are.
We truly should never forget this moment.
UPDATE: Since this post was first written, the language of the order was finally released – and it became clear that this is actually the Global Gag Rule “on steroids”, impacting ALL global health funding, to the tune of $9.5 billion. Trump and co. will start and spread worldwide epidemics in their quest to control women’s bodies. So I take part of my point back: I think it was also done out of spite. It’s just that, yknow, in his attempt to teach uppity marchin’ women a lesson, he may kill us all.
Kate Hamill lives and works in New York City. She's pretty pissed off at the moment.
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