Today, according to the Associated Press, President Barack Obama will sign an executive order that ends the Global Gag Rule. This means that international groups who accept U.S. aid will no longer be restricted from promoting, performing or speaking about abortion. It is a move that should be celebrated by both sides of the abortion debate, although I’m sure some of my conservative friends will disagree on the surface.
Under the global gag rule, also known as the Mexico City Policy, agencies that offered health care to women could not mention, much less advocate, abortion — regardless of the specific circumstance of the women and families involved — if that agency wanted monetary support from the U.S. This means that agencies could not even use their own funds for this purpose or they would risk losing all U.S. aid.
Think of it as “don’t ask, don’t tell” for reproductive health — that if we don’t speak of it, it somehow won’t exist. Unfortunately, because of this rule, other necessary services have been depleted for other countries — contraceptives, maternal and child health programs, and HIV services, just to name a few. Clinics throughout the world have been forced to downsize and even close.
While I’ll wager a guess that those who vehemently oppose abortion would be willing to take these cuts in stride because of their belief that the global gag rule reduced the instance of abortion, there is no evidence that this happened. We do, however, have evidence that unsafe abortion remains among the leading causes of maternal death in many nations on which this gag rule has been imposed. In further irony, the gag rule effectively prevented the health care organizations from discussing the dangers of unsafe abortion.
Let me put this another way, there were very few policies implemented by the Bush administration with which I agreed. One that was very worthy of praise was the former President’s push against HIV/AIDS, especially his aid package to developing countries.
No secret was made of the fact that former President George W. Bush had his eye set on reproductive health programs as a way of making concessions to his base. An easy way to do that was for him to reinstate the Global Gag Rule, which was first initiated by former President Ronald Reagan before it was stricken by former President Bill Clinton. After doing this, however, Bush decided he would expand the Global Gag Rule to impact his global HIV/AIDS initative. The expansion never took place because the policy wonks could not come up with a way to sell the program without admitting that the Gag Rule would negatively impact the HIV/AIDS effort.
The Gag Rule has had that same horrible impact on the family planning providers since its inception.
In the spring of last year, the Washington Post reported that increased birthrates among Filipino women helped keep the population of that country in poverty. It goes without saying that impoverished populations are some of the most desperate and unstable in the world. Now, look past the Philippines to Kenya, Zambia, Ethiopia, Romania, Nepal, Ghana, Tanzania and all the other underdeveloped nations you can name.
U.S. funding for international family planning, as of the spring of 2008, was roughly $460 million — 40 percent less than what the U.S. provided in 1995. In addition, the Bush administration lobbied for more cuts the program, wishing to reduce it by nearly 70 percent. But that’s not all. The Bush administration also withheld nearly $200 million from the U.S. Population Fund, an organization that provides family planning and health care assistance to many more countries than the U.S. directly aids.
This brings us back the Phillipines. In 1995 the U.S. provided $37 million for that nation’s family planning and reproductive health needs. In 2007, the Bush administration suggested just over $5 million. The Bush adminstration acknowledged that high birth rates contributed to the poverty in the country, and that the poverty in the country contributed to lack of employment and educational opportunities. (Which, BTW, are direct contributors to our own nation’s illegal immigration problems.)
Because of some stupid political maneuver — and I do mean “stupid” because this obviously goes well beyond ignorance — we have not only failed to reduce the number of abortions in our own country and abroad, but we have contributed to an increase in unplanned/unwanted pregnancy. This has led to population increases, mostly in the most impoverished segments of the world, that the already strapped countries cannot care for, which requires the countries to turn more forcefully to the world community for help. Because of the global economic crisis, countries now have fewer dollars at their disposal which are not needed at home. Impoverished persons, unable to find work, education or other opportunities in their home countries, look for ways out.
To bring it full circle, the same individuals likely screaming to high heaven about the immigration issues in our nation are the same individuals who have long held ideology that has been a major contributing factor to the problem. That’s why those on both sides of the abortion debate should be celebrating today. Women residing in countries that allow abortion will now have the option. All women will learn the risks associated with unsafe abortion. Increased contraception awareness and distribution will help reduce unintended pregnancy (reducing the number of abortions).
Above all else, however, women here and elsewhere will finally be allowed all the necessary information to keep themselves healthy. Polices that “protect the sanctity of life” do not allow more than 500,000 women in developing countries to die each year from pregnancy-related causes. They do not allow 8 million more to suffer serious complications due to pregnancies that occur at a young age or that are spaced too closely. They also do not allow more than 10 million children under the age of 5 to die each year from low birth-weight, pregnancy complications and/or starvation.
