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Malawi clinical services

The Global Gag Rule

IPPF and our partners stand to lose over US$60 million in funding through refusing to sign the Global Gag Rule. 

Read more about the broad impact of US policies on our mission and work here.


 

 

 
Waiting room at ABUBEF clinic in Ngozi, Burundi.

The Global Gag Rule: $60 million in lost funding for IPPF

This year, the US has once again reinstated the deadly Global Gag Rule (GGR)—a violent, imperialist policy that has been weaponised by every Republican administration since Reagan in 1984. The GGR forces non-US organisations to choose between providing abortion care and receiving US funding, holding healthcare hostage to a far-right agenda. IPPF refuses to comply.

Abortion care and advocacy are not optional—they are at the core of what we do. We will never be silenced, never trade away our commitment to reproductive freedom, and never allow the US government to dictate what healthcare people around the world can and cannot access. IPPF and our Member Associations stand firm: we will not comply with the GGR, and we will not abandon the people who rely on us.

IPPF has seen first-hand how destructive GGR has been:

  • For decades, every Republican administration from 1984 to 2016 has weaponised the Global Gag Rule (GGR) to choke off family planning funds, forcing IPPF and our Member Associations to reject US aid rather than comply with its brutal conditions.
  • The evidence is clear: the GGR doesn’t stop abortion—it fuels crisis. Research shows that when clinics are forced to close, contraception access plummets, unplanned pregnancies rise, and abortion rates soar. Under Bush’s GGR (2001–08), pregnancies in affected countries increased by 12%, and abortions skyrocketed by 40%.
  • The GGR isn’t just a funding restriction—it’s an attack on reproductive rights and global health. It blocks access to abortion information and care, slashes contraceptive services, silences SRHR advocates, guts community health programmes, and violates the sovereignty of entire nations.
  • Trump took this cruelty even further in his first term as President. In 2017, he expanded the GGR to cover all global health assistance—ripping funding from HIV/AIDS programmes, maternal and child health, malaria prevention, and even global health security. The message was clear: ideology over lives. IPPF refuses to comply, and we will never stop fighting back.

13 countries and 16 healthcare projects worldwide are affected by the Global Gag Rule

ADV Advocacy • CON Contraceptives • CSE Comprehensive Sexuality Education • FP Family planning • FSW Female sex workers • GBV Gender based violence • HIV HIV healthcare • KP Key populations • MAL Malaria • MCH Maternal and child health • NUT Nutrition • OUT Outreach • SF Social franchising • STI STI services • TB Tuberculosis • OVC Orphans and vulnerable children • YG Young girls • YP Young people • Zika VC Vulnerable children

African countries affected

  • Togo
  • Mauritania
  • Cote d’Ivoire
  • Cameroon
  • Malawi
  • Ethiopia
  • Burundi
  • Burkina Faso
  • Ghana
  • Niger
  • Uganda. 

South East Asian countries affected

  • Indonesia 
  • The Philippines

What's at stake?

  • In Malawi, the Family Planning Association of Malawi (FPAM) is the main family planning and adolescent health technical partner for two major USAID integrated health projects. Their work has improved equity in access to contraceptive services by supporting provider training, improving data collection and supply management systems, and upgrading quality assurance protocol use.
  • In Ethiopia, the Family Guidance Association of Ethiopia (FGAE) is the lead local FP partner on USAID’s youth, nutrition, and health communication projects. 
  • IPPF is leading ExpandPF, a large multi-country USAID project in Francophone West Africa. It started last year and is planned to continue until 2028. It is expected to reach nearly 1.2 million contraceptive users and over 1.3 million contraceptive years of protection (CYP) if it receives its full funding and continues until its anticipated end date in 2028.  
  • FPOP (as part of a consortium) has been working on a proposal for a health project with USAID. They were going to sign an agreement with USAID in January for US$600K to support CSE among young people. However, this is officially suspended. 

IPPF believes reproductive health is a right and everyone should be able to make choices about their well-being. Therefore IPPF will not support policies which actively restrict or violate an individual’s right to choose.

The Global Gag Rule not only undermines but violates these rights and therefore, IPPF cannot and will not support it.

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Related Member Association

Family Planning Association of Malawi, Family Guidance Association of Ethiopia