Health and Education, Policy Updates
TAKE ACTION: Gag Rule threatens reproductive healthcare
by Ashley Lidow on May 29, 2018
The Trump administration proposed a domestic gag rule that would hurt women in the US by stripping Title X funding—funding that is dedicated to providing reproductive health services and care—from healthcare providers that refer patients for abortion services. This funding cut would have the biggest impact on low-income Americans.
First, let’s talk about gag rules. A gag rule is a tool used by the government to restrict funding to an organization based on what information is given by that organization. Since the 1970s various presidential administrations have used executive orders to issue a global gag rule to restrict the provision of US foreign aid to any organization that provides or discusses abortion. This policy has had deadly consequences for women living all over the world. President Trump reinstated and expanded the global gag rule, and now he is bringing that toxic policy home to the United States.
For the first time, the domestic global gag rule imposes these restrictions on organizations working in our own country and threatens to undermine our family planning programs and services in the United States. Title X funded health centers provide care to over four million people each year and are an essential resource for low-income women. There are already restrictions in place for government funding of abortion services. This new, extreme, and cruel rule would not only interfere with women’s access to safe and legal abortion; they would restrict women’s access to other critical health and family planning services.
These policies proposed by the Trump administration keep information from patients about all their options when facing unintended pregnancies and, though abortion is legal, if women do not have access to information about their options, it is a right in name only.
Want to know more about how the global gag rule has devastated communities around the world? Check out these links:
http://www.populationconnectionaction.org/effects-global-gag-rul/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Phe_I1hceBI
We all know that knowledge is power and women need the power to decide what is best for them.
To take action and defend Title X right now, click here for three opportunities.