Earned Media Guide

The Global Gag Rule and Helms Amendment hamstring efforts to seriously address the crisis of unsafe abortion throughout the developing world.

• The Global Gag Rule results in deadly consequences by cutting funding for medical supplies, health care, and contraception. Trump’s version—repealed by President Biden in January 2021—affected more than family planning and reproductive health care funding, impacting $8.8 billion in U.S. global health aid. When the Global Gag Rule is in effect, fewer people have access to care that prevents HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, and other infectious diseases.
• The Global Gag Rule builds on a history of deadly anti-choice policy that hurts people around the world. The Helms Amendment prevents any U.S. foreign assistance dollars from directly paying for abortion; the Global Gag Rule goes further, and prevents clinics that receive U.S. aid from counseling about, providing referrals for, or performing abortions at any time, even if they use non-U.S. dollars for these services.
• As many as An estimated 23,000 women die every year from unsafe abortions—nearly all in developing countries. Indeed, it’s impossible to seriously address women’s health without considering the impact of unsafe abortion.

The Global Gag Rule and the Helms Amendment increase unsafe abortion.

• The Global Gag Rule causes clinics to close, contraceptive supplies to dry up, mobile health delivery to end, and costs to patients to rise.
• The Global Gag Rule, under George W. Bush, caused abortion rates in the most-affected African countries to increase by 40%, according to a study published in The Lancet by Stanford University researchers. Most of those abortions were unsafe. We can expect the results of Trump’s Global Gag Rule—once the data is available—to be at least as detrimental.
• The Helms Amendment has a chilling effect—as its supporters intend—on abortion care and women’s rights in developing countries. It creates confusion and divisive rhetoric around reproductive rights, and stunts countries’ social progress.

Investment in international reproductive health and family planning saves lives.

• We know that when people can make their own health care decisions, their families and their communities thrive. The power to decide whether or when to get pregnant is critical to everyone’s health, autonomy, dignity, educational opportunity, and economic security. Ensuring that every person has this power will strengthen families, communities, and countries across the globe.
• In 2022, Congress appropriated $607.5 million in U.S. assistance for family planning and reproductive health programs overseas, including $32.5 million for UNFPA. According to the Guttmacher Institute, this averted 9.1 million unintended pregnancies, 3.6 million unintended births, 2.9 million unsafe abortions, and 15,000 maternal deaths.
• Women with access to contraception have higher incomes, own more farmland and other assets, and have healthier families. This leads to greater economic freedom and stability for women and their families in developing countries, which has been found to contribute to economic growth and greater prosperity.
• The United States must increase its investment in international family planning to $1.74 billion, including $116 million for UNFPA—this is our “fair share” contribution for eliminating unmet need for family planning in the developing world.