23 January 2009

Evidence replaces ideology as President Obama reverses ‘disastrous’ Bush policy

Today, 23 January 2009, President Barack Obama rescinded the Global Gag Rule, one of the most controversial and ideologically motivated policies imposed by former President Bush. 

The Global Gag Rule, re-imposed in 2001, stated that U.S. funding for family planning was denied to any non-U.S. non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that used their own money to:

• provide counselling and referral for abortion, even in countries where abortion is legal
• advocate to make abortion legal or more available in their country, even at the request of their own government
• perform abortions in cases other than a threat to the life of the woman, rape, or incest

However, anti-abortion advocacy was allowed, underscoring the ideological nature of the Gag Rule.

Dr. Gill Greer, Director General of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, said:
“For eight long years the Global Gag Rule has been used by the Bush administration to play politics with the lives of poor women across the world. 

In rescinding this disastrous and unjust policy, President Obama has returned the United States to the international consensus on women’s health and begun the process of repairing the damage of the last eight years.

“IPPF estimates that during the Bush administration it lost at least US$100 million for the life saving family planning and sexual and reproductive health services that our grassroots national affiliates in over 100 developing countries deliver to their communities. 

Based on internationally recognized estimates this funding would have prevented 36 million unintended pregnancies and 15 million induced abortions. 

More tragically 80,000 women’s and 2.5 million infant and children’s lives would have been saved.  This is the true legacy of the Global Gag Rule.”

The Gag Rule, and the dangerous ideology that supports it, puts non-governmental organizations from outside the United States in an untenable position, forcing them to choose between carrying out their work to improve the health and rights of women or lose their funding from the United States. 

It would have imposed unethical, unsafe restrictions upon IPPF medical practitioners by requiring them to deny medically-necessary information to their clients, and so violate the trust of their communities. 

This ‘gag’ is an attack upon freedom of speech that, if attempted in the United States, would be ruled unconstitutional.

The Gag Rule has had a devastating impact upon the breadth and effectiveness of the delivery of family planning, sexual health and contraceptive services around the world, particularly in Africa where only 18 per cent of women have access to modern contraception, compared to 56 percent in the rest of the developing world. 

The de-funding of IPPF and others has directly contributed to this.

When the Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana, an African pioneer in sexual and reproductive health, lost U.S. funding for its rural outreach programmes, condom distribution fell by 40 percent overnight, impacting family planning and HIV prevention programmes. 

In addition, 38,000 women who had regularly been receiving contraceptive supplies from PPAG were no longer able to obtain them, and an additional 20,000 women and children could no longer access maternal and child health services. 

In 2009 it still has not been possible to replace the distribution network PPAG had developed in rural Ghana prior to the Gag Rule and instances of unsafe abortion have risen by up to 50 percent in some areas.

Dr. Greer continued:
“The Gag Rule has done immense harm and caused untold suffering to millions around the world; it has undermined health systems and endangered the lives and health of the poorest and most vulnerable women on the planet by denying access to life saving family planning, sexual and reproductive health and HIV services and exposing them to the dangers of unsafe abortion. 

“More insidiously, it formed the basis for a concerted attack by the Bush administration upon reproductive rights that saw discussion, even of family planning, stifled at the international level and gains in women’s health and rights reversed. 

IPPF celebrates the commitment by President Obama to discard policies harmful to women and looks forward to working with the Obama administration to open a new chapter in women’s health.”

In 2001 when the Gag Rule was re-imposed the European Commission and donor governments recognised the devastating impact it would have upon health provision around the world and increased funding to cover some, but not all, of the lost funding from the U.S. 

The result was that clinics closed, medical staff were lost and family planning, sexual and reproductive health and HIV services were cut back, affecting many communities in developing countries.

Contact
Paul Bell 
Tel +44 (0) 207 939 8233 
Cell +44 (0) 7799 335533
 Email pbell@ippf.org