Trump Revives Reagan-Era Ban on Use of Foreign Aid for Abortion Counseling

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/23/world/trump-ban-foreign-aid-
abortions.html?google_editors_picks=true

UNITED NATIONS — President Trump reinstated a policy on Monday that
originated in the Reagan era, prohibiting the use of United States foreign
aid to health providers abroad who discuss abortion as a family-planning
option.

United States law already prohibits the use of American taxpayer dollars
to be used for abortion services anywhere, including in countries where
abortion is legal. But this order, known by critics as the global gag
rule, takes it further. It freezes United States funding to health care
providers in poor countries if they include abortion counseling or if they
advocate the right to seek abortion in their countries.

Coming as one of Mr. Trump’s first orders, it was likely to please the
anti-abortion lobby at home. But critics say it also symbolizes the new
administration’s defiance of the women’s reproductive rights movement, an
important force in the weekend protest marches in Washington and other
cities that followed Mr. Trump’s inauguration.

As for the order’s practical effects, health policy experts say
restrictions on abortion services in the past have not led to a decline in
abortion rates in countries that receive funding from the United States
for reproductive health services, and they warn that those restrictions
only heighten the chances of illegal, often unsafe, abortions.

The United States is the largest bilateral donor of reproductive health
services abroad, according to the United Nations Foundation, which
advocates greater support from the United States for the world body.

In recent decades, abortion rates have declined sharply in the richest
countries, including the United States, where the rate has fallen to its
lowest since the Supreme Court legalized abortion in 1973, according to
the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports women’s right to
have an abortion. It has remained steady in the developing world since the
early 1990s.

The impact of the order is likely to be felt beyond abortion services,
which cannot be carried out with any federal funding, under a 1973 law
known as the Helms Amendment and named after the former North Carolina
senator Jesse Helms.

Critics say the order would hinder the ability of women in poor countries
to access reproductive health services, including family planning, by
severing United States funding to health clinics that offer a variety of
services, including abortion counseling.

A study of 20 sub-Saharan African countries by Stanford University
researchers, for instance, found that in countries that relied heavily on
funding from the United States for reproductive health services, abortion
rates rose when the Reagan-era policy was in place.

The World Health Organization says 225 million women in the developing
world would like to delay childbearing but are not using contraception for
a variety of reasons, including a lack of access.

“President Trump’s reinstatement of the global gag rule ignores decades of
research, instead favoring ideological politics over women and families,”
Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Democrat of New Hampshire, said on Monday. “We
know that when family planning services and contraceptives are easily
accessible, there are fewer unplanned pregnancies, maternal deaths and
abortions.”

The order revives what is known as the Mexico City policy, so named
because President Ronald Reagan announced it in 1984 during a United
Nations population conference in Mexico City.

It has been suspended by every Democratic president since then and
reinstated by every Republican. Democrats in Congress have tried —
unsuccessfully — to pass legislation that would scrap the policy. Ms.
Shaheen said she intended to introduce similar legislation. With
Republicans controlling both houses, it is unlikely to pass.

Mr. Trump’s pick for ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki R. Haley,
made clear in her confirmation hearing last week that she opposed
abortion, even as she said she backed support for contraceptive services
in United States foreign aid programs.


--
Donald J. Trump, 304 electoral votes to 227, defeated compulsive liar in
denial Hillary Rodham Clinton on December 19th, 2016. The clown car
parade of the democrat party has run out of gas.

Congratulations President Trump. Thank you for ending the disaster of the
Obama presidency.

ObamaCare is a total 100% failure and no lie that can be put forth by its
supporters can dispute that.

Obama jobs, the result of ObamaCare. 12-15 working hours a week at minimum
wage, no benefits and the primary revenue stream for ObamaCare. It can't
be funded with money people don't have, yet liberals lie about how great
it is.

Obama increased total debt from $10 trillion to $20 trillion in the eight
years he has been in office, and sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.

With a little luck, we'll see compulsive liar Hillary Clinton in jail too.