Republicans and Trump attack reproductive rights in other countries with Helms and global gag rule, hurting pregnant poor women and families.
American conservatives have been busy launching attacks on reproductive rights on other countries, too—with disastrous consequences for millions of poor women.
Afterward, Ochieng said, she cut up her mattress to use in place of sanitary pads, which she could not afford. She was 16 years old.. They live in a culture that gives women little agency over their bodies; they experience high levels of poverty—two-thirds of residents live on less than that remains on the books.
That anti-abortion policies would lead to more abortions seems counterintuitive, except when you consider that the organizations that perform, counsel and educate people about abortion are often those that provide condoms, pills, IUDs, and other forms of birth control. If healthcare providers so much as mention abortion, they can lose money for broader healthcare services, including contraceptives. Fewer contraceptives equal more unwanted pregnancies. More unwanted pregnancies .
“Family planning was seen as a method by which to limit the growth of biologically and socially inferior races,” Rodgers wrote in her 2018 book, That was not a winning position in a Republican Party that had been shifting rightward since the election of 1980, when the Reverend Jerry Falwell and his newly minted Moral Majority
The Trump administration reasoned that it was tightening the rules to prevent U.S. money from trickling down through organizations that didn’t provide abortion-related services to those that did.Never mind that the Helms Amendment had made it illegal to use U.S. money to directly pay for abortions overseas
There is a common theme among the countless studies that have examined the effects of the Helms Amendment and the Mexico City Policy over the years: The rules have backfired. One of the most widely quoted studies, which came out of Stanford University and was in 2019, found that during the eight years of the George W. Bush administration, abortions increased a whopping 40 percent in countries that were “highly exposed” to the Mexico City Policy.
Horrigan and others are particularly enraged by the Mexico City Policy because, when imposed, it is layered on top of the Helms Amendment, making the effect that much more intense. Two anti-abortion leaders—Dannenfelser, of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, and Huber, of the Institute for Women’s Health—emailed me, confirming their continued support for the abortion restrictions. Neither responded to my questions about the many studies that found the policies increase abortions and maternal mortality. Nor did they provide research that came to different conclusions, as I invited them to do.
Most organizations couldn’t afford to say no to the Goliath of healthcare funding. But some did. Some survived by accepting fewer patients, advocates said, but a number closed altogether. Even sanitary napkins were on the chopping block. When the Kenya Legal and Ethical Issues Network on HIV and AIDS lost about half its $900,000 U.S. grant, it could no longer provide free menstrual pads, said Nerima Were, a former official there who is now the legal director at the Initiative for Strategic Litigation in Africa. “sex for pads,” in which young women and girls have sex with older men who give them money to buy the products, Were said.
“A large portion of the population is living with HIV. And so we really need every tool that we have to prevent HIV,” Sherwood told me. After Trump left office, foreign health organizations funded by the U.S. struggled to resume the family-planning services they had been forced to cut. But problems lingered, in part because communications from Washington were unclear, and for most of 2021 some women were unable to access legal abortions, Fòs Feminista .
Biden proposed a $70 million increase for family planning assistance and UNFPA in fiscal 2024. But his administration ran headfirst into House Republican to slash the family planning budget by nearly one-quarter, codify Trump’s Mexico City restrictions, and block any payment to UNFPA. Given that possibility, a 14th year of stagnation “might qualify as a victory right now,” Lasher said.
Editar Ochieng didn’t tell her parents about her rape and pregnancy and didn’t go to a hospital. The stigma of abortion was too great, she told me, noting that even songs characterized the procedure as a crime. As a high school student, Ochieng couldn’t afford the 20,000 Kenyan shillings—roughly $280 in 2006—to pay for a safe abortion, or even the 3,000 shillings—less than $43 at the time—for an unsafe abortion. She borrowed money from a close friend, who took it from her college fund.
United Kingdom Latest News, United Kingdom Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Global child deaths reach historic low in 2022, UN report saysThe report revealed more children are surviving today than ever before, with the global under-5 mortality rate declining by 51% since 2000.
Read more »
Four Seasons, Red Sea Global extend reach in Saudi ArabiaThe hospitality group and developer are constructing a wellness-focused resort and residences in the new Amaala development on the coast.
Read more »
Patex Expands Global Reach, Lists Native Token on Major CEX and DEX PlatformsCrypto Blog
Read more »
Global Oil Prices Reach Seven-Month High on Middle East TensionsThe global price of oil rose to its highest level in seven months due to concerns about supply disruptions in the Middle East. Brent crude climbed 1.8% to $89 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate crude rose 1.8% to $85 a barrel. This could lead to higher gasoline prices worldwide.
Read more »
The global gas glut could reach multi-decade highs in the coming years, Morgan Stanley saysA warmer-than-normal winter has dampened demand for heating and consequently gas in key LNG consuming countries.
Read more »
Global Baku Forum kicks off, pledging solutions to global crisesThe Global Baku Forum aims to facilitate an open and unconstrained debate among its distinguished members and participants to learn from the past, assess the present, and envision the future.
Read more »