The Global Gag Rule in the Crosshairs

Washington, DC - November 5, 2007

Women are dying from preventable causes and the U.S. is contributing to the problem. This was the grave truth repeated at last Wednesday’s hearing before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs on the Global Gag Rule (Mexico City policy)—the first hearing of its kind in the last decade. Women are dying because the U.S. Global Gag Rule is preventing them from getting the reproductive health care and supplies they desperately need to prevent unwanted pregnancies. For the first time since President Bush took office, both houses of Congress have passed legislation to right this wrong.

This hearing was a long-overdue opportunity for Congress to better understand the real-life, destructive consequences of the Gag Rule on women and children. Members of the committee heard first-hand how this restriction's cut-off of family planning services is increasing unwanted pregnancies, abortions and maternal mortality. Witnesses testifying at the heavily attended hearing included Duff Gillespie, PhD,former Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Global Health Bureau at USAID and current PAI Board member; Ejike Oji, MD, Country Director for Ipas-Nigeria; and Joana Nerquaye-Tetteh, PhD,former Executive Director, Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana.

“The Global Gag Rule exacerbates the situation in Nigeria whereby women have no choice about how to manage their own lives. That is what makes me so angry, because at the end of the day it is our women—our wives, daughters, and sisters—who are dying,” Dr. Oji testified. The Global Gag Rule prevents USAID from working with organizations that can most effectively increase the use of family planning—largely through rural distribution. This is an incredibly dangerous gamble in Nigeria where nearly one-third of women say they have had an unwanted pregnancy and half of those have attempted an abortion.

Ghana has also been hit hard by the Global Gag Rule. According to Dr. Nerquaye-Tetteh, as a result of this U.S. policy, access to family planning was significantly reduced and the number of unintended pregnancies and new sexually transmitted infections both increased. Immediately following the imposition of the Gag Rule, and PPAG’s refusal to sign the policy, they saw a 50% increase in the number of women seeking post-abortion services.

While some supporters of the policy tried to make the case that family planning is not harmed by the Global Gag Rule, this is simply false. As Chairman Lantos stated in his opening remarks, “While the Global Gag Rule is being promoted as anti-abortion, it remains at its core anti-family planning.” By preventing funding from going to the organizations where they can be most effective on the ground, the Gag Rule is the roadblock keeping life-saving reproductive health care and supplies from women in need.

"It is clear that the Mexico City Policy is in fact thwarting our efforts to prevent unintended pregnancies, abortions and the spread of HIV/AIDS," said Representative Nita Lowey, chair of the House Appropriations Committee on State-Foreign Operations. The Global Gag Rule "is unconstitutional, immoral, unsubstantiated and dangerous."

The hearing was especially well-timed as President Bush threatens to make good on his promise to veto the entire Fiscal Year 2008 foreign assistance spending bill over a provision that exempts contraceptives from the Gag Rule's restrictions. We urge the President to stop playing politics with women’s lives and repeal the Gag Rule.

Population Action International (PAI) works to improve individual well-being and preserve global resources by mobilizing political and financial support for population, family planning and reproductive health policies and programs.