Trump’s shameful war on women is backfiring by creating a global rallying cry for choice
By Dr. Carole Sekimpi
Two years ago, the Trump Administration began its dangerous mission to de-fund women’s health organizations around the world. One of President Trump’s first acts was to dramatically expand the Global Gag Rule — a detrimental and ideologically-driven policy intended to cut organizations like MSI off at the knees because we believe in a woman’s right to choose and know that access to contraception and safe abortion saves their lives.
But two years later, I’m proud to say that we are standing strong for the many women and girls who need us. Because although the Gag Rule’s consequences are damaging in countless ways for the world’s most vulnerable, this regressive policy has also backfired for the Trump Administration by creating a global rallying cry for choice.
Two years since MSI refused to agree to the terms of Trump’s Gag Rule, we face a funding gap of $50 million through 2020. If we don’t fill this gap, 1.4 million women around the world will lose access to our life-changing services.
The Gag Rule’s proponents say the policy stops US funding for abortion services overseas. This is a total distortion of how the policy works. Not only has US funding never gone to abortion care, but — by limiting funds to the world’s leading providers of contraception — the Gag Rule has been proven to actually increase unsafe abortions. Without alternative funding, MSI estimates that the Gag Rule could result in 1.8 million unintended pregnancies, 600,000 unsafe abortions and 4,600 entirely preventable maternal deaths from the loss of our services alone.
In Uganda, I see the real-life consequences of this shameful policy every day. My program lost US funding almost immediately after Trump reinstated the Gag Rule, and the results have been serious for Uganda’s impoverished women and girls.
One way we reach Uganda’s most vulnerable and isolated women is through our outreach teams, small teams of health workers who travel for weeks at a time to provide remote communities with contraceptive services.
Before the Gag Rule, we had 35 outreach teams. Since the policy hit, we have been forced to close five teams due to funding losses. This means we’re unable to go to some communities as often as we need to — and other communities not at all. This leaves women and girls with nowhere else to turn for the contraception they want and need.
Perhaps even more alarming is that the Gag Rule’s funding losses are just the tip of the iceberg. The US Government is the world’s largest donor of global family planning efforts, and so it sets the tone on women’s health and rights globally.
In Uganda, the result is that women’s reproductive rights are regressing, and essential family planning services are becoming increasingly stigmatized. Conversations around reproductive health policies and services are more polarized, and Marie Stopes in Uganda has lost some critical partnerships with organizations that feel they have no choice but to comply with Trump’s Gag Rule.
This “chilling effect” can be just as detrimental to women’s health and lives as funding losses and program closures. Sex, contraception, abortion — we’re already talking about taboo and difficult topics. And Trump’s Gag Rule is only making it harder. Those who oppose women’s choice feel emboldened.
Despite all this, I’m still hopeful because Trump’s Gag Rule has sparked something even more powerful.
Over the past two years, MSI has found a committed base of supporters that unequivocally believes in women’s choice. In Uganda, I’m seeing women, men and young people — spurred on by the impact of the Gag Rule in their communities — become even stronger advocates for women and their sexual and reproductive health and rights.
Sex should be healthy. Women and girls should have control over their bodies, lives and futures. These truths are affirmed every time I see the relief and smiles on women’s faces when they leave one of our centers or get care from our outreach teams.
Despite — or perhaps because of — its true intentions, the Gag Rule has created a growing movement of passionate advocates for women’s choice around the world. With them, I am ready to protect women’s access to family planning. I am ready to fight on.
