Obama strikes down global gag rule

President Barack Obama on Jan. 23 rescinded what is known as “the global gag rule.” This policy, instituted by former President George W. Bush on his first day in office in 2001, has had severely detrimental effects on millions of women worldwide.

The rule banned U.S. aid funds from going to international family planning groups that perform or provide counseling about abortions. It also prohibited funding for groups that lobby to legalize abortion or provide information about abortion. In order to receive U.S. funds, health providers were “gagged” from even speaking the word “abortion,” preventing them from offering women a full range of reproductive health and family planning services.

The Planned Parenthood Action Fund stated: “Clinics have closed, contraceptive supplies have dwindled, and women were left without basic and critical health care services. As a result, there were more unwanted pregnancies and more unsafe abortions. Today, one woman dies every minute of every day due to pregnancy-related causes, including unsafe abortion, and over 200 million women in developing countries who wish to delay or end childbearing lack access to modern contraceptives.” (ppaction.org)

Gill Greer of the International Planned Parenthood Federation in London declared, “For eight long years, the global gag rule has been used by the Bush administration to play politics with the lives of poor women across the world.” (Washington Post, Jan. 24)

The IPPF estimates it lost about $100 million in U.S. funding in the past eight years, which could have prevented 36 million pregnancies and 15 million abortions. “This is the true legacy of the global gag rule,” said Greer. (ippf.org, Jan. 23)

Struggle must move forward

Women’s rights and reproductive rights organizations were among those congratulating Obama on his historic inauguration. Despite the hopes for a new era for reproductive health and rights that the new administration seems to herald, many acknowledge the difficult challenges ahead.

“We must continue to organize, organize, organize ... and in our organizing, we must be sure to keep women’s health clinics safe and open,” exhorted the Feminist Majority Foundation in a Jan. 22 message marking the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. (E-mail to FMF listserv) Noting that “anti-[choice] extremists have called for ‘a return to the streets’ in the wake of their massive election year losses,” the FMF reports that in Lincoln, Neb., on Jan. 16: “A suspicious fire caused extensive smoke damage at one of the only abortion clinics in the state. The clinic’s physician and his family have long been the target of extremist threats and the victims of a previous arson.” Women’s health clinics in Allentown, Pa.; Birmingham, Ala.; and Charlotte, N.C., are also facing increased activity by anti-choice forces.

RH Reality Check reports: “On President Obama’s second day in office, and on the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, an SUV has smashed into the front entrance of a Planned Parenthood in St. Paul, Minnesota, the only Planned Parenthood clinic in the state that offers abortions. The collision occurred at 7:30 a.m., when only one clinic staffer was indoors. That staffer was unhurt.” (rhrealitycheck.org, Jan. 22)

National Organization for Women president Kim Gandy, in a message entitled “We Must Face Reality,” stated, “Until we have a more positive [Supreme] Court, or a Congress that will pass the Freedom of Choice Act—both of which may take years—those of us who believe in women’s rights must mount campaigns in every state where the radical religious and political right wingers have spread their influence in state government.” (E-mail to NOW listserv, Jan. 22)

Although both houses of Congress now have Democratic majorities, 57 percent of U.S. representatives and 60 percent of senators do not support women’s reproductive rights. (naral.org)

It is expected that Obama will act swiftly to repeal the new Department of Health and Human Services regulation allowing health care providers to refuse women care based on the providers’ personal beliefs about abortion and contraception.

Center for Reproductive Rights President Nancy Northup said the HSS regulation, imposed by Bush as one of his last acts in office, “drastically interfere[s] with the ability of more than 17 million women to get quality health services—including contraception, counseling and information necessary to make decisions about their own reproductive health. In particular it compromises the health of women who rely on public programs.” (reproductiverights.org, Jan. 20)

Women’s rights and reproductive rights leaders and organizations are also calling on Obama to strike the Hyde Amendment, which denies abortion access to women enrolled in Medicaid, and other funding restrictions from his first federal budget. Northup notes: “These policies have put millions of low-income women in dangerous situations, forcing some to continue with a pregnancy even when it jeopardizes their health. In fact, 20-35 percent of Medicaid-eligible women who would choose abortion don’t when public funds are not available.”

Other measures being fought for include the nomination of federal judges committed to upholding Roe v. Wade and established constitutional rights for women; restoration of funding to the United Nations Population Fund, which works on reproductive rights and family planning issues; striking funding for abstinence-only programs in proposed budgets for the Maternal and Child Health Services Title V Block Grant and Community-Based Abstinence-Education programs; and promotion of reproductive health care policies guided by science instead of right-wing ideology.