'Global gag rule' could endanger millions
Sarah Boseley
Tuesday 14 February 2017 09.21 EST
The “global gag rule” imposed by Donald Trump, blocking US funds to any organisation involved in abortion advice and care overseas, could impact millions of women and girls, endangering their lives and those of their babies, Bill and Melinda Gates have warned.
The changes are expected to result in funding from the world’s biggest donor to family planning and women’s health programmes in the developing world being slashed. It could, Bill Gates told the Guardian, “create a void that even a foundation like ours can’t fill”.
Gates and his wife spoke out as they published a progress letter to Warren Buffett, the businessman who 10 years ago invested a large part of his fortune in the couple’s foundation, which has at its centre the mission to save children’s lives. Empowering women and girls, the couple said, was central to that aim.
Trump signed an executive order reimposing the Mexico City policy, also known as the global gag rule, on his first full day in office. Republican presidents since Ronald Reagan in 1984 have imposed the policy, while their Democrat counterparts have lifted it. The rule strips funds from any organisation that “performs or actively promotes abortion as a method of family planning” overseas ...
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/feb/14/bill-and-melinda-gates-trumps-global-gag-rule-endangers-millions-women-girls-us-funding