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Well, we knew this one was coming. On Friday, Donald Trump reinstated the famously terrible Mexico City Policy — also known as the global gag rule on abortion — which defunds non-governmental family planning organizations (and, under Trump, all health-related NGOs, period) that provide abortions, tell people where they can get abortions, or even acknowledge the existence of abortion.
This is being presented by conservative media as him barring the use of taxpayer dollars to fund abortions. For instance, the headline for the news is “Trump reinstates Mexico City Policy, separates taxpayer dollars and abortions” on the Fox News website, and “Trump Bars Taxpayer Funding for Abortion in the U.S. or Overseas” in The Tablet Catholic Newsletter.
That’s not what this is. Unfortunately, because of the Hyde Amendment, federal funding for abortion is already illegal, both in the US and overseas. What this does is bar family planning services from providing abortions that we do not fund, or even mentioning their existence.
This means that a family planning organization that provides abortion, abortion referrals or even discusses abortion with its clients in a country where abortion access is legal will also not get funding to provide contraception and STI testing and prevention in countries where it is not legal. Also, because Trump’s version of the rule — Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance (PLGHA) —also extends to any NGO health provider, it means that access to healthcare that doesn’t have a damn thing to do with abortion will also be impacted.
As you might imagine, this measure, which has been implemented by every Republican president since Reagan, has not worked out especially well. It also hasn’t actually prevented any abortions.
Conversely, the Mexico City policy has historically resulted in an increase in abortions rather than a decrease, for reasons that should be completely obvious to anyone with a modicum of sense. It defunds the family planning programs that provide birth control and other forms of contraception to people in these nations, which then, obviously, increases the number of unplanned, unwanted pregnancies and therefore the number of abortions.
A 2019 study published in The Lancet concluded that the policy led to a 40 percent increase in abortion in sub-Saharan African countries.
Via Plan USA:
The 2019 study compares contraception use, pregnancies and abortion rates in 26 sub-Saharan African countries during the reinstatement and subsequent repeal of the policy (also known as the Global Gag Rule) across three Presidential Administrations. Similar to a June 2018 report from the Center for Health and Gender Equity, the Stanford study published in The Lancet finds that when the policy is in place, there is “a rise of approximately 40% in relation to the average abortion rate,” versus when the policy is not in effect. This enormous increase in abortion rates is also mirrored by a decline in the use of contraception and an increase in unwanted pregnancies.
A 2018 report from CNN on the effects of the policy on Kenya, where abortion is illegal, was especially harrowing:
Health worker Elizabeth Wanjiru was walking through the narrow streets of Kenya’s largest slum earlier this year when she came across two schoolboys pointing at something in a muddy ditch. As she drew closer she saw it was the remains of an aborted fetus.
Dumped elsewhere in Kibera, the fetus had washed up in a narrow alleyway after a night of rainfall. It’s something Wanjiru hasn’t seen for years.
Healthcare workers reported that there had been a stark increase in the number of back alley abortions, because (duh) contraception was harder to come by. Not great, when you consider the fact that 35 percent of maternal deaths in Kenya are caused by illegal abortions.
Of course, those who support this policy don’t actually care that it kills people or even that it results in more abortions overall. They only care that they are punishing the right people and NGOs.
Trump’s executive order, by the way, makes a startlingly false claim:
The first Trump Administration also extended this policy to global health assistance. A 2020 report by the United States Agency for International Development found that this life-affirming policy in no way diminished women’s health around the world.
Oh really? So, first of all, this report only studied the first six months. Second, despite the fact that it was very clearly written to diminish the actual negative impact of this “life-affirming policy,” it’s still fairly obvious that it caused significant harm:
The declinations occurred in awards that span various health technical areas, including HIV/AIDS, voluntary family planning/reproductive health, tuberculosis, maternal and child health, nutrition, and cross-cutting innovation activities.
In most cases in which a recipient or sub-recipient declined to agree to the terms of PLGHA, USAID and/or the prime partner successfully transitioned activities to ensure the continuity of global health assistance. Most declinations connected to USAID did not produce a disruption of health care or significant delays in the provision of services. However, USAID found that, in a few cases, the declination resulted in some impact on the delivery of healthcare, including for HIV/AIDS, voluntary family planning/reproductive health, tuberculosis, and nutrition programming.
Slightly more than half, or 60 percent, of the awards with declinations included funding for the provision of health care to clients. The remaining 40 percent focused on other types of health activities. While these awards offer health-related benefits to clients, they generally do not involve the direct provision of health care to such clients.
Of the declinations, three of the six prime awards involved health-care delivery, and each of them reported that some disruption in the provision of health care resulted from their declination.
Thirty-one of the 47 sub-awards that declined to agree to PLGHA involved some health-care delivery. Fewer than half of these (12 out of 31) reported a gap or disruption in the delivery of health care as a result of a declination.
They really, really tried here and it’s still quite clear that the policy had a negative impact on the care women and others were able to receive. They even included a cute little chart showing how few NGOs were actually impacted.
The US Government Accountability Office, however, pointed out that the NGOs that declined to accept the terms of the PLGHA policy were also the largest — accounting for $102 million of the $153 million in planned funding in prime awards. Planned Parenthood International and Marie Stopes international alone accounted for $79 million of this funding. Of the 47 sub-awards that declined the terms — accounting for $51 million in funding — 32 of them had been intended to go to Africa.
Here in the United States, Trump also doubled down on the Hyde Amendment, the policy that (already) bars taxpayer funding for abortion at home and abroad.
To restore this longstanding policy, the Order rescinds two executive orders from President Biden that violate the Hyde Amendment:
Executive Order 14076 imposed a whole-of-government effort to promote and fund abortion and to politicize enforcement of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. […]
Executive Order 14079 recategorized abortion as “healthcare” in order to provide taxpayer funding for elective abortions. This included using Medicaid funding to pay for travel costs for elective abortions.
How would a “non-politicized” version of the FACE Act even work? People who believe in abortion rights are not exactly trying to block entrances to abortion clinics.
Under Trump, the Department of Defense will no longer reimburse abortion-related travel expenses and VA hospitals will no longer be allowed to provide abortions.
Naturally, after having spent an entire year trying to convince supporters of abortion rights that he could be trusted, Trump also proudly included, in this order, a list of ways he harmed and opposed access to abortion here and around the world.
Reinstated and expanded the Mexico City Policy, ensuring that taxpayer money is not used to fund abortion globally. [Which, again, actually increases abortion globally — Ed.]
Issued a rule preventing Title X taxpayer funding from subsiding the abortion industry. [I assume they meant subsidizing, but who can be sure — Ed.]
Cut all funding to the United Nations Population Fund, which supports coercive abortion and forced sterilization. [Just to be clear, that is absurd and they do not — Ed.]
Signed legislation overturning the previous administration’s regulation that prohibited states from defunding abortion facilities as part of their family planning programs.
Fully enforced the separate payment requirement for abortion coverage in Obamacare exchange plans.
Stopped the Federal funding of fetal tissue research. [That research actually saves lives — Ed.]
Worked to protect healthcare entities and individuals’ conscience rights, ensuring that no medical professional is forced to participate in an abortion in violation of their beliefs.
Issued an executive order reinforcing the requirement that all hospitals in the United States provide medical treatment or an emergency transfer for infants who are in need of emergency medical care—regardless of prematurity or disability.
Led a coalition of countries to sign the Geneva Consensus Declaration, declaring that there is no international right to abortion and committing to protecting women’s health.
First president in history to attend the March for Life.
So weird how he didn’t brag about any of that during his campaign!
Of course, anyone who voted for Trump thinking he wasn’t going to go after abortion is probably daft enough to have voted for him even if he did brag about all of that. Guess they’ll just have to cross their fingers and hope that none of this ends up biting them in the ass as well.
PREVIOUSLY ON WONKETTE!
