What Trump’s Global Gag Rule Means For Abortions Worldwide

Abortion. The word has been controversial since time immemorial. With women themselves opposing each other about the issue, to having the government interfere with what a woman decides to do with her own body, it’s not easy being an expectant mother who would like to voluntarily terminate her pregnancy.

Donald J Trump hasn’t been popular because of the policies he proposed during this campaign. Of of these is wanting to appoint justices that would be able to overturn Roe v Wade. The second was that the US would stop funding millions of dollars to international NGOs and organizations that deal with women’s healthcare issues, especially carrying out safe abortions and educating women on their own health. This means that foreign countries outside of the United States, especially Third World nations, will no longer receive aid from the United States for women’s healthcare in their own respective countries.

For the United States, this helps them save millions (if not billions) of dollars being doled out to other nations, and they can use this money to fund projects within their own country. However, for the international NGOs, it will mean the cutting of large funds received from the US, to carry out healthcare awareness for women even in the remotest parts of the world. In fact, the signing of Trump’s Global Gag Rule will not allow for US NGOs abroad to even talk about abortion and provide contraceptives to prevent pregnancies in the first place.

There are mixed opinions about the signing of the Global Gag Rule. If you were made aware about the #WomensMarchOnWashington, you can understand that privileged women in the United States are fighting for unknown women in other countries to receive the US’s help to getting much-needed healthcare and safe abortions that will prevent the deaths of thousands of women who cannot afford expensive treatment in their own country.

The Global Gag Rule has been an issue with past Presidents of the United States. It was first instated in 1984 by then-President, Ronald Reagan. Bill Clinton repealed it when he came into office, then George W Bush brought it back. Obama again repealed it, and it stayed that way for 8 years of his reign. Now that Trump is here, it is being brought back again. It looks more like a Democrat-Republican see-saw than actually about women’s rights. And just so you know, Trump signed the Global Gag Rule in a room that was filled only with men.

Depending on which way you look at it, the Global Gag Rule is going to be controversial. On one hand, you have the United States government de-funding NGOs and saving up on hundreds of millions of dollars. Trump is not banning abortion, but merely telling women that if they want one, they will need to pay for it themselves, or seek insurance to cover it, because the government is not going to pay for something that is basically a personal choice of a woman. But, what happens to those who really cannot afford healthcare, and who are not educated about the safe ways of contraceptive and abortion procedures? What happens to those faceless women who will die or suffer for the rest of their lives? Is it really something that the United States should spend taxpayers’ money on, or is it something that local governments will now have to start doling out for their own women citizens?