How the US global gag rule threatens health clinics across Kenya and Uganda

[milestogo]

A community reproductive health volunteer gives contraceptive advice to a young family in Kasese, Uganda.

Each day she sets out to speak to young girls about family planning, Elizabeth Akoth, 23, sees how myths about the use of contraceptives are entrenched in her western Kenyan community. When she explains the various methods they can use to prevent unintended pregnancies, they ask searching questions such as, “Is it true drugs offered for family planning can lead to death?” and “Do they even work?

Akoth and her fellow peer educators in Homa Bay, a town on the shores of Lake Victoria, have educated dozens of girls on the family planning options available to them, undoubtedly saving many from the unintended pregnancies that often force girls to drop out of school.

But their work may well grind to a halt following the re-imposition by the Trump administration of the global gag rule, a policy that cuts funding to foreign organisations if they provide abortion information, referrals or services, or if they engage in any advocacy on abortion rights with their own funds. Organisations are offered the choice to stop offering these services and still receive funding, or to continue and lose financial support.

Campaigners say the policy will have a devastating impact on millions in many developing countries. “This blocks access to sexual and reproductive health services in the poorest and hardest to reach communities where we are currently changing lives,” says Tewodros Melesse, director general of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF). “We can’t support something which tries to restrict people’s choices or take them away. The global gag rule undermines those human rights, so IPPF cannot sign the policy.”

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/jan/24/how-the-us-trump-global-gag-rule-threatens-health-clinics-across-kenya-and-uganda

Hatred for the poor and hatred for women all over the world.

[bdamomma]

1. he is taking his revenge out now

he is causing a lot of trouble and hurting everyone.

This was on Democracy Now about this gag order.

https://www.democracynow.org/shows/2017/1/24


You can tell he is not mentally well.

[C_U_L8R]

2. Every affected organization should band together

And tell Trump to fuck off.

[Hekate]

4. Sure, and they will forego any government funding whatsoever on that basis.

They're doing the best they can with what they've got.

[C_U_L8R]

5. I'm afraid he's going to cut their funding regardless

May as well make a stand.

[Hekate]

3. It threatens the very lives of women in every war-torn land, because rape is a weapon of war

It not only damages women but rips apart families and tribes. Women who give birth to a child of the enemy are not only personally demoralized but often punished by the people who could not protect them. This played out in Bosnia, that whole area, lest you think Europe isn't affected too.

The global gag order is one of the most heartless policies imaginable, and it will always be a political football until Democrats start showing up in the midterms and get us a solid majority in the House.