Global Gag Rule

What is the Global Gag Rule?

The global gag rule (sometimes called the Mexico City Policy) cuts off U.S. funds to any overseas health clinic unless it agrees not to use its own, private, non-U.S. funds for: abortion services, abortion-related advocacy, and abortion counseling or referrals.

This policy blocks the world's poorest women's access to birth control and other family-planning services that prevent maternal and child deaths, unintended pregnancies, unsafe abortion, and the spread of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections.

Effects of the Global Gag Rule

The global gag rule has had devastating effects on family-planning services. As a consequence of the policy, overseas groups have closed health centers, cut staff, and raised fees. Thousands of women and families in need of public health services have been turned away from under-funded health centers.

History of the Global Gag Rule

• The global gag rule was first issued by a Reagan Administration executive order. Introduced in 1984 and carried through the first Bush Administration, the global gag rule denied U.S. funding to foreign non-governmental organizations that either "perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning in other nations."
  
  
• In 1993, President Clinton signed an executive order repealing the global gag rule.
  
  
• After years of fighting to reinstate the global gag rule, anti-choice lawmakers finally succeeded in forcing President Clinton's hand in 1999 by making their release of nearly $1 billion in U.S. back dues to the United Nations conditional upon his acceptance of the gag rule.
  
  
• On January 22, 2001, President George W. Bush re-imposed the global gag rule by executive memo.
  
  
• On January 23, 2009, President Barack Obama rescinded the global gag rule by executive order. --Thank Goodness President Obama! We LOVE you!

http://www.prochoiceamerica.org/issues/abortion/access-to-abortion/refusal-clauses-and-counseling-bans/global-gag-rule-main.html