@thekarynne
The GGR is a destructive U.S. foreign policy that obstructs global health and human rights around the world
The Global Gag Rule (GGR) is a destructive, neocolonial, and inhumane U.S. foreign policy that obstructs global efforts to promote health and advance human rights around the world.
When enacted, the GGR mandates that for foreign nongovernmental organizations to receive certain categories of U.S. foreign assistance, they cannot perform, refer, or provide counseling about abortions as a method of family planning (FP), nor can they engage in advocacy related to the liberalization of national abortion law, even if they paid for such activities with their own, non-U.S. funds.
President Joseph Biden’s first Presidential Memorandum on women’s health included the revocation of the policy in late January 2021, an action that was welcomed by the international sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice (SRHRJ) community.4 However, revoking the GGR does not end the policy’s harm.
Proactive policies that ensure sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) are respected, protected, and fulfilled are required to mitigate the damage from past policies have wrought as well as generate long overdue advancements in integrated service delivery and the promotion of SRHR. Actors at all levels of the U.S. foreign assistance system bear a responsibility to develop and implement these policies.
