Trump signs order to reinstate ‘global gag rule’ on abortion aid | Trump administration
Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order reinstating a federal rule known as the “Mexico City Policy” that bars U.S. aid from flowing to groups that provide abortion services, advise people about the procedure or advocate for abortion rights abroad.
The policy, first instituted by Ronald Reagan in 1984, is typically implemented when a Republican president wins the White House, and is rescinded when a Democrat wins. But this injury has major implications for abortion and reproductive health care around the world.
Historically, the Mexico City policy revival impacts up to $600 million in international aid. However, during his first term, Trump dramatically expanded the scope of the Mexico City Policy, which abortion rights advocates call the “global gag rule.” Instead of applying this policy only to family planning assistance, as was usual, this policy was applied to family planning assistance only Trump administration It has been applied to help organizations providing a range of health services around the world – resulting in policy impact on aid worth billions of dollars.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, which tracks abortion restrictions and their impact, the policy could prevent access to contraception, push women to seek unsafe abortions, and cause unrest within nongovernmental organizations that rely on U.S. aid to continue their programs.
“Reinstating the Mexico City policy would have deadly consequences for people around the world,” Rebecca Hartholder, president of Reproductive Justice Now, said in a statement.
“The United States is a vital partner to health care providers and organizations around the world, and robbing front-line health care providers of their ability to provide the full range of reproductive health care, and even information about people’s choices, will result in people losing their lives due to pregnancy.” Complications.
Trump also signed a second executive order affirming long-standing US policy prohibiting the use of federal funds to pay for abortions. The order also rescinded two executive orders drafted by Joe Biden that sought to protect access to abortion in the wake of the repeal of the 2022 law. Roe v. Wade. The fall of Roe led to a wave of states to ban the measure.
Trump’s executive orders arrived hours after their passage Send a pre-recorded message To demonstrators attending the March for Life, the nation’s largest anti-abortion rally, in Washington on Friday afternoon. His deputy, J.D. Vance, addressed the march personally.
“With his inauguration on Monday, our country faces the return of the most pro-family and pro-life American President of our lifetime,” Vance told the crowd to huge cheers.
Abortion rights supporters had been anticipating a return of the Mexico City policy, but are still awaiting news on whether Trump will allow widespread enforcement of the Comstock Law, an anti-vice law dating back to the 19th century that could be used to effectively ban abortion nationwide.
Although abortion rights remain very popular in the United States, the appearance of Vance and Trump at the rally is a sign of the anti-abortion movement’s political strength and its hardening grip on the Republican Party.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson also spoke in March – the first time in the more than 50-year history of March that leaders of both chambers of Congress have ever delivered a similar speech.
