Trump expands global gag ban on funding for groups that carry out abortions

'This administration's obsession with attacking women’s reproductive health is egregious and dangerous,' says Democratic Senator

Studies have found the Mexico City Policy leads to increases in abortion rates because of cuts to contraception use and closures of health clinics (AFP/Getty Images)

The Trump administration has expanded its ban on funding for groups that carry out abortions or advocate rights known as the global gag rule.

Donald Trump had already expanded the reach of the funding ban to apply to all US healthcare assistance – totalling about $6bn (£4.5bn).

The US president reinstated a policy known as the Mexico City Policy on his fourth day in office which dates back to the Reagan administration – requiring foreign non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that receive US family planning funds to certify they do not provide abortions or give abortion advice.

But on Tuesday, the Trump administration announced it was expanding its anti-abortion policies – cutting funding to the Organisation of American States (OAS) and prohibiting the use of US tax dollars to lobby for or against abortion rights.

The extension of the policy will not just cut funding to foreign NGOs directly involved in abortions or abortion rights advocacy, but also those who fund or support other groups which provide or discuss abortion.

The move has been fiercely criticised by abortion rights campaigners and Democrats, who say the gag rule infringes on free speech.

“There is no end to the depths of the Trump administration's cruelty. Millions of women ... will be arbitrarily left without care due to this shameful decision,” US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tweeted.

Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the only woman on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and co-sponsor of a bipartisan bill to make the Mexico City Policy illegal, said she had asked the administration for more information behind the decision.

“This administration's obsession with attacking women’s reproductive health is egregious and dangerous,” she said.

Leana Wen, the head of Planned Parenthood, which Mr Trump vowed in his presidential campaign to defund for providing abortions, described the announcement as “unethical, dangerous and unacceptable.”

Studies have found the Mexico City Policy leads to increases in abortion rates because of cuts to contraception use and closures of health clinics.

Researchers say the policy leads to more deaths of mothers and babies because it also forces women into having unsafe backstreet abortions.

Rights groups say the expansion of the rule means NGOs providing services to prevent and treat malaria, HIV and other infectious diseases have been massively affected.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters the US will expand the “global gag rule” by cracking down on NGOs that fund other groups that support abortion.

“We will refuse to provide assistance to foreign NGOs that give financial support to other foreign groups in the global abortion industry,” Mr Pompeo said on Tuesday.

“We will enforce a strict prohibition on backdoor funding schemes and end-runs around our policy. American taxpayer dollars will not be used to underwrite abortions.”

State Department spokesperson Robert Palladino said the US would cut about $210,000 in funding from the OAS' Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, an autonomous group that promotes human rights within the regional organisation.

The rule has been called the Mexico City Policy since it was unveiled at a UN conference there in 1984 and became one of the centrepiece social policies of the conservative administration of Republican former president Ronald Reagan.

Rights organisations have accused the Trump administration of attacking women’s reproductive rights by reinstating the global gag rule, appointing anti-abortion rights activists to key posts in federal departments which handle women's health and striving to cut Title X funding to health providers that carry out abortions or make abortion referrals.

Alarm bells have been raised that Roe v Wade – the landmark Supreme Court decision that legalised abortion nationwide in 1973 – could be overturned or radically undermined with new conservative justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh sitting on the Supreme Court.

The Trump administration took aim at Planned Parenthood last month by issuing a rule barring groups that provide abortions or abortion referrals from participating in the $286m (£215m) federal family planning programme. The move is expected to redirect tens of millions of dollars from the women’s health provider to faith-based, anti-abortion groups.