Why Trump’s next presidency poses a new global threat to women’s health

Women who had no say in Trump’s election could lose vital reproductive health services because of his policies, Rachel Schraer reports

Central to Trump’s global influence on women’s health is a policy called the Global Gag Rule (Associated Press)

Immediately after Donald Trump clinched a second term in the White House, mail orders of abortion pills spiked across the U.S. Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood, the country’s biggest provider of reproductive health services, saw an eightfold increase in appointments for long-acting contraceptive devices known as IUDs.

The reality of another Trump presidency appears to have stoked fears among many Americans that their access to abortion and contraception could be further restricted. But the issue stretches beyond U.S. borders. Around the world, hundreds of millions of women who had no say in Trump’s election could lose vital health services because of his decisions.

During his last term, Trump nominated three of the conservative Supreme Court justices who ultimately voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, restricting reproductive rights at home, while also making decisions that led to the closing of clinics abroad. In countries receiving U.S. aid, progress stalled in efforts to increase uptake of contraception and reduce complications and deaths from unsafe abortion.

This time, he has already nominated an anti-abortion UN ambassador in Elise Stefanik and a health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose views on a major issue — in his case vaccines — go against scientific evidence.

Trump’s nominee for UN ambassador Elise Stefanik has vocally opposed abortion (AP)

Another figure who could have the ear of the next administration is Valerie Huber, who spent two decades campaigning for ineffective abstinence education before being appointed to Trump’s last White House as a senior adviser. While there, she made sweeping changes that led to nearly a million fewer people gaining access to federal family planning programs, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Last month, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) revealed that she has been laying the groundwork to influence reproductive health services in several countries around the world. She has particularly focused on those who already have fragile reproductive and sexual rights.

Huber has spent the last couple of years meeting African officials and politicians in nine countries, from Burkina Faso to Uganda. She has also signed a secretive agreement with the Ugandan government to implement a women’s health project.

The project, called Protego, aims to eventually set up clinics offering a range of health services, as well as promoting abstinence as part of discussions about contraception. Such programs have been criticized for including inaccurate information about reproductive health.

Huber told TBIJ that the project, called Protego, drew on “science-based concepts,” citing studies that showed people undergoing abstinence education were “no less likely to use a condom” and had “improved academic success.” But given her stance on reproductive rights, it has caused concern for charities working in the area. She is already in talks with other countries with a view to rolling it out further. After Trump’s election, Huber said that she was “[looking] forward to working alongside his administration” on women’s health around the world.

Central to Trump’s global influence on women’s health is a policy called the Global Gag Rule, brought in by every Republican president and repealed by every Democrat since its introduction. It says that any organisation receiving U.S. aid money must agree not to perform or promote abortion. Research has linked the rule to a fall in contraception use and, ironically, a rise in abortions.

The idea that “you can somehow treat abortions as if it is not part of a set of services” is not realistic, says Elizabeth Sully, a senior research scientist at the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive rights charity that promotes access to safe abortion services. “It doesn’t meet people’s needs.”

“What does that mean for women’s lives […] when they’re being forced to carry a pregnancy that they wanted to avoid by using contraception?” she adds.

Valerie Huber has spent the last couple of years meeting African officials and politicians in nine countries (EWTN/YouTube)

When her organization looked at the effect of the Global Gag Rule in Uganda and Ethiopia, she said, it found reductions in family planning services and access to long-acting contraception, especially in mobile clinics serving more remote areas. She expects the pattern to be the same across all countries receiving U.S. aid.

“[The gag rule] is stagnating progress and that is going to have implications in the longer run too on unwanted pregnancies… and unsafe abortions.”

Last time Trump was in office, he expanded the rule so it applied to aid used to fund any health service, not just family planning. It’s expected that a version of this will be repeated this time – and that it may be taken further still.

Indications of that can be found within Project 2025, a 900-page document drawn up by the ultra-conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation that sets out a vision for the next conservative administration. Though Trump distanced himself from the project during the election campaign, he has already nominated more than one of its contributors — including Brendan Carr, who wrote a chapter on the Federal Communications Commission, the agency he’s been picked to oversee.

Also named among the document’s contributors is Huber, whose long-held beliefs appear to be reflected in a chapter that states the next administration should remove all references to “gender equality,” “abortion” and “sexual and reproductive rights” from foreign aid policies, contracts and grants.

It also proposes expanding the gag rule to all foreign aid and removing certain exemptions, including one for humanitarian assistance.

This means organizations funded by U.S. aid and providing vital help, for example around gender-based violence, might need to pledge not to provide abortions or face losing money.

“We’re talking now about this policy being applied in some extremely fragile and vulnerable contexts where there is high levels of sexual violence and a need for access to abortion care really critically,” Sully says.

During his last term, Trump nominated three of the conservative Supreme Court justices who ultimately voted to overturn Roe v. Wade (AP)

Project 2025 also recommends the next White House builds on a non-binding international agreement called the Geneva Consensus Declaration — co-authored by Huber during Trump’s first administration — which states there is “no international right” to abortion.

It was initially signed by 32 countries including the U.S., Uganda, Hungary and Brazil, and is seen as a way to rally countries to challenge the sexual and reproductive rights generally promoted by international agencies like the United Nations.

According to Gillian Kane, director of global policy at the reproductive rights charity Ipas, “Huber has basically written her new job description into the [Project 2025] document.”

“We can anticipate she will use her government influence to push an anti-abortion, anti-LGBTI, anti-gender agenda on a global scale.”

Buky Williams, a sexual and reproductive health and rights lead at Ugandan-based feminist organisation Akina Mama wa Afrika, said; “With Trump back in power, Protego and Huber’s influence will be legitimised by the U.S. government and its resources.”

“The reach and impact of their agenda will now be a US foreign policy agenda. And that gives us a lot of reasons to be worried.”

This piece was co-published with The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, where Rachel Schraer is a senior reporter.