The Global Gag Rule must be repealed for good: Population Connection Action Fund welcomes reintroduction of Global HER Act

For immediate release:

Donald Trump reimposed the devastating Global Gag Rule last Friday, following a televised address to anti-choice campaigners at a march in Washington, DC. The Global Gag Rule prevents foreign organizations from receiving US aid if they provide abortion services, referrals, or counseling, or if they advocate for abortion rights in their own countries, even if they use their own money to do so.

Trump’s implementation of the Global Gag Rule is the most extreme in US history, implicating the entirety of US global health assistance.

Population Connection Action Fund is one of more than 100 civil society organizations around the world that have signed on to a statement opposing this harmful policy.

Legislation to permanently end the Global Gag Rule was reintroduced in the House (H.R.764) and Senate (S.280) yesterday, by Rep. Lois Frankel (D-FL-22) and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), respectively. The Global Health, Empowerment, and Rights (HER) Act would repeal Trump’s cruel Global Gag Rule and prevent any future president from unilaterally imposing it again. Passing this legislation is critical to the stability of foreign health organizations operating in some of the most resource-scarce places on earth, serving some of the world’s most vulnerable people.

Population Connection Action Fund Senior Vice President for Governmental and Political Affairs, Brian Dixon, says,

“As expected, Trump is once again relentlessly and recklessly causing unnecessary suffering and threatening the lives of millions of women and girls around the world. Population Connection Action Fund stands in solidarity with the many amazing reproductive rights advocates fighting his cruel policies. We urge Congress to pass the Global Health, Empowerment, and Rights (HER) Act to permanently repeal the Global Gag Rule.”