Two Years of the Global Gag Rule

"The tragic irony of this misguided gag is that, from Bangladesh to Bali, when women have better access to comprehensive reproductive health care, economic opportunities and education, the quality of everyone’s lives is dramatically improved," says Population Action International (PAI) President Amy Coen.

The Global Gag Rule bars U.S. funding for any organization that uses its own, non-U.S. money to provide legal abortion, talk to its patients about the availability of legal abortion, or even talk about its own country’s abortion laws. The policy coerces family planning clinics, doctors, and organizations into sacrificing their right to fully counsel patients or even participate in democratic debate in order to receive U.S. funding for voluntary family planning services. In other words, the Global Gag Rule is not about abortion but is a de facto ban on providing women with comprehensive reproductive health care in the developing world.

But could the Global Gag Rule — a policy which when imposed received international condemnation as anti-women, anti-free speech, un-democratic, and even un-American — be just the first step in a slowly-emerging, hardline approach from the Bush Administration to international family planning?
"The Global Gag Rule was a huge win for America’s anti-family planning extremists — at the expense of improving the health of the world’s poorest women and children. The extremists wanted more, and despite U.S. law and U.S. public opinion, the Bush Administration appears to be prepared to give it to them — slowly, systematically, and in venues that don’t get much media attention," says PAI’s Vice President of Public Policy, Terri Bartlett.

Take last month's Asian and Pacific Population Conference in Bangkok. Seasoned State Department officials were sidelined by private sector "advisors" such as former Vatican U.N. representative John Klink — apparently determined to propel their controversial views onto the international stage. Things got so bad that at one point delegates were treated to a bizarre lecture on how the rhythm method should be able to work for all the world’s women.

"The world’s poorest women want access to family planning. They want some economic opportunities. They deserve to have an education. They badly want to improve the quality of their lives and that of their children. The Global Gag Rule and its supporters stand in their way; this policy should be repealed today," PAI’s Amy Coen urged.

Population Action International (PAI) works to improve individual well-being and preserve global resources by mobilizing political and financial support for population, family planning and reproductive health policies and programs.