A big THANK YOU to Rep. Ami Bera (D-Calif.), who co-authored an op-ed in Roll Call this morning with PAI President and CEO Suzanne Ehlers. Their joint piece focuses on how the Global Gag Rule places a heavy burden on both women and their doctors, and why we need to end this harmful policy once and for all.

In case you missed it, the Gag Rule denies foreign organizations receiving U.S. foreign aid for family planning the right to use their own non-U.S. funds to provide information, referrals or services for legal abortion. This affects not only reproductive health care providers, but private hospitals and clinics.

Check out the excerpt below, and click over to Roll Call to read the full piece.:

“Organizations are left with a no-win choice between losing their U.S. funding and losing their ability to be honest and provide comprehensive health care to patients. The Global Gag Rule is even more reprehensible because it endangers women’s health in countries where accessible and high-quality health care is already too scarce, and where pregnancy can pose serious health challenges.

Physicians take an oath to put their patients above all else. According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the policy’s restrictions “violate basic medical ethics by jeopardizing a health care provider’s ability to recommend appropriate medical care.” Trust is the cornerstone of the doctor-patient relationship, but this policy violates that trust by restricting health providers from providing information, counseling or referral on all legal pregnancy options.”