U.S. global gag rule seriously injures NGOs providing reproductive health and other services; Global Fund is not directly affected
ABSTRACT When President Trump took office, one of his first actions was to reinstate the Mexico City Policy, also known as the “global gag rule.” The policy, invoked by every Republican administration since 1984, requires that foreign NGOs receiving U.S. funding for family planning programs not use their non-U.S. funding to provide abortion services, or even present abortion as one of the options. But Trump extended the reach of the policy to cover all forms of health programming, not just family planning. Many outreach programs provided by NGOs have had to close.