The Global Gag Rule and Women's Reproductive Health

Abstract

In recent decades, the long arm of US politics has reached the intimate lives of women all over the world. Since 1984, healthcare organizations in developing countries have faced major cuts in US foreign aid if they perform or promote abortions as a method of family planning. The policy—commonly known as the global gag rule—is a hallmark of Republican administrations. The reinstatement and expansion of the global gag rule by Donald Trump in January 2017 caused a firestorm of debate. Proponents emphasize the importance of reducing abortions globally, while critics predict large increases in unsafe abortions and maternal mortality resulting from disruptions to family-planning services. How plausible are the various claims and projections? This question is surprisingly difficult to answer because there is little statistical evidence on the global gag rule. This book helps to fill the gap by conducting a systematic analysis of how the global gag rule affects women’s reproductive health across developing regions. The analysis yields three important messages: (1) in the majority of countries that receive US family-planning assistance, the global gag rule has failed to achieve its objective of reducing abortions; (2) there is no definitive relationship between restrictive national abortion laws and abortion rates; and (3) the 2017 expansion of the global gag rule will have adverse effects on a dashboard of health indicators for women, men, and children. These powerful messages should be heard by policymakers over the voices calling for an ideologically based policy that has counterproductive results.