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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHow the US global gag rule threatens health clinics across Kenya and Uganda
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 cant support something which tries to restrict peoples 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
(63,923 posts)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
(45,021 posts)And tell Trump to fuck off.
Hekate
(90,829 posts)They're doing the best they can with what they've got.
C_U_L8R
(45,021 posts)May as well make a stand.
Hekate
(90,829 posts)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.