Bush's Global Gag Rule Only Making Matters Worse – New Reports, Redesigned Web Site Illustrate Effects on Women in Developing Countries

April 20, 2005

Four years since the reinstatement of the Global Gag Rule by President George W. Bush on January 22, 2001, the policy continues to erode family planning and reproductive health services in developing countries, according to new case studies made available today on the Global Gag Rule Impact Project’s Web site.

Key Findings Include:

• In addition to severe financial losses, the gag rule has resulted in the loss of technical assistance and contraceptive donations to key nongovernmental organizations in Ethiopia, worsening the country’s supply shortage.
  
• By preventing regional partnerships, the gag rule is crippling efforts in Ghana to address reproductive health and HIV/AIDS in a coordinated and effective manner.
  
• Nongovernmental organizations in Tanzania are struggling to sustain current levels of service since refusing to accept the terms of the gag rule; meanwhile, demand for supplies and services is ever increasing.

Also known as the Mexico City Policy, the Global Gag Rule mandates that no U.S. family planning assistance be provided to foreign nongovernmental organizations that use money from any other source to perform abortions – in cases other than those threatening a woman’s life, rape or incest – provide counseling and referrals for abortion or lobby to make abortion legal or more available in their country. There is no evidence that it has reduced the incidence of abortion globally. On the contrary, the gag rule impedes the very services that help women avoid unwanted pregnancies from the start.