On 24 January 2025, President Trump signed an executive order reinstating the Global Gag Rule (GGR).
The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) - a federation of members and partners in 153 countries - fights for the right of every individual to decide about their own health, well-being and life. IPPF will never support policies which actively restrict or violate an individual’s right to bodily autonomy, including the right to safe abortion.
The GGR - also known as the Mexico City Policy - violates human rights by forcing women to continue with an unwanted pregnancy or into unsafe abortion, and IPPF will not tolerate it.
The GGR is a far-reaching, destructive American foreign policy, one that is deeply unpopular with the American people. It denies U.S. funding to organisations like IPPF if they use money from other donors to provide safe abortion services, counselling or referrals. It blocks critical funding for health services like contraception, maternal health, abortion care, and HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment for organisations that refuse to sign it.
When it has been enacted by previous Republican Presidents, evidence has shown that the GGR has led to an increase in maternal deaths, in unplanned pregnancies and unsafe abortions. It blocks access to health care for women and the most vulnerable people, silences SRHR advocates, reduces coverage of community health workers, and infringes on a country’s sovereignty. The Global Gag Rule’s reinstatement will result in an escalation in avoidable health crises, needless physical and emotional harm, a loss of dignity for women, and death.
IPPF anticipates it will lose $61 million USD for programs that provide sexual and reproductive health services for millions of women and youth. 13 countries and 16 healthcare projects worldwide are affected by the Global Gag Rule. Without funding, the people we serve will otherwise go without these vital services, including women suffering the burden of health and humanitarian crises.
Donald Makwakwa, Executive Director, Family Planning Association of Malawi (FPAM): "The reinstatement of the global gag rule will have devastating consequences for women and girls in Malawi, where access to sexual and reproductive health services is already limited. Projected funding cuts to FPAM will disproportionately harm women and young girls in Malawi, many of whom rely on these services to avoid unplanned pregnancies, unsafe abortions, and maternal deaths. It is a cruel policy that sacrifices lives and bodily autonomy."
The global gag is further insult to injury on top of other U.S. foreign policies that have a catastrophic impact on the communities in which our MAs work. Just yesterday, the State Department’s Office of Foreign Assistance sent a global cable that ordered an immediate pause on new foreign aid spending, as well as a stop-work order for existing grants and contracts. The new executive action targeting transgender, non-binary and intersex individuals has resulted in great fear for our communities.
We have already seen funding cut as a result of its new anti-DEI executive action. The US also announced it plans to renew its membership of the Geneva Consensus Declaration, an anti-abortion joint statement initially cosponsored by persons claiming to represent the governments of Brazil, Egypt, Hungary, Indonesia, Uganda, and the United States. It was signed by persons from 34 countries on October 22, 2020.
It is clear foreign aid has become a political weapon, used to enforce hateful ideologies at the expense of women in all their diversity, and against LGBTQI+, poor and immigrant communities.
We cannot—and will not—deny life-saving services to the people we serve. We urge other governments and donors to step forward and call out the damage and destruction of these destructive actions. We stand in solidarity with our community. Now is the time for our movement to unite, to come together and to fight for a world of sexual and reproductive health, rights and justice for ALL.
Learn more about Global Gag Rule here: The Global Gag Rule | IPPF
For more information, please contact [email protected] or +44 7918 845 944.
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Americas & the Caribbean