The Gag Must Go! PAI Applauds Senate Vote to Overturn Global Gag Rule

"Today the Senate sent a clear message to the White House by overturning the gag rule," says Amy Coen, President of Population Action International (PAI). "This is a victory for women, and a victory for democracy."

The amendment offered by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), which is also known as the Global Democracy Promotion Act, ensures that U.S. foreign policy is consistent with American values, including medical ethics and practice, as well as free speech. It prevents the imposition of requirements that would be unconstitutional or untenable as a matter of policy here in the U.S. from being exported as a matter of U.S. foreign policy.

"From Nigeria to South Africa — nations the President is visiting on his historic trip to Africa this week — when women have access to reproductive health care, economic opportunities and education, millions of lives are saved and improved. It's a great — but largely untold — success story. Yet the harmful gag rule erects walls between the world's poorest people and the essential reproductive health services they desperately want to improve their lives," Coen stresses.

Imposed by President Bush on his first day in office, the Global Gag Rule (also known as the Mexico City policy) denies U.S. family planning funds to foreign non-governmental organizations that use other, non-U.S. funds to counsel, perform, or advocate around abortion. When it was introduced, supporters of the controversial policy argued that its impact would be minimal. Today, more than a year later, dozens of organizations have lost funding as a result — including a number that have lost access to basic contraceptive supplies, including condoms.

The bill heads next to conference committee, where committee members will negotiate the differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill.

"We urge members of the conference committee to do what's best for the health and well-being of the world's women and support Senator Boxer's amendment," says Terri Bartlett, Vice-President for Public Policy at PAI. "It's finally time to do what's right, and to advance access in the developing world to the same basic rights American women have enjoyed for decades."