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Memorandum Fact Sheet on Bush Global Gag Rule (4/19/2001)
MEMORANDUM TO: Interested Persons FROM: ACLU Washington National Office RE: Bush Administration Global Gag Rule DATE: April 19, 2001 On his first working day in office, President George W. Bush reinstated the global gag rule -- a dangerous, anti-democratic restriction on overseas family planning aid first imposed in 1984 by President Reagan. To make matters even worse, President Bush and members of his administration misled the public about what they had done and why. They claimed that President Bush reinstated the gag rule to prevent U.S. taxpayer money from being used to fund abortions. The global gag rule accomplishes nothing of the sort. Here are some facts: What the Global Gag Rule Does The global gag rule prohibits foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that receive U.S. family planning dollars from using their own -- not U.S. government -- funds to perform certain abortion-related activities. For example:
It prohibits foreign NGO grantees from using their own money to provide their pregnant patients counseling and referral for abortion, except in cases of rape, incest, or life endangerment -- even if abortion is legal in their country, and even if a safe referral can mean the difference between safeguarding a woman's health or sacrificing it to back-alley practitioners. These organizations may not inform a woman about the availability of safe and legal abortion even when a pregnancy threatens her health.
It prohibits foreign NGO grantees from using their own money to lobby a foreign government to legalize abortion or even to keep abortion legal in a country in which it is already permissible. (The prohibition applies except when lobbying for abortion services in cases of rape, incest, or where a pregnancy endangers a woman's life.) Such advocacy is prohibited even though family planning providers in the developing world are the natural proponents of legal abortion because they watch thousands of women a year die and treat thousands more who are suffering the consequences of illegal, unsafe and unsanitary abortion practices.
It prohibits foreign NGO grantees from conducting public information campaigns regarding the availability of abortion -- even when it is a legal option in their country. What the Global Gag Rule Doesn't Do The global gag rule does not prohibit the use of U.S. funds to perform or promote abortions. Since 1973 -- well before the genesis of the global gag rule -- the Helms Amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act, reenacted annually, has prohibited the use of any U.S. taxpayer funds to perform abortions overseas. Since 1981, the use of U.S. funds for abortion-related lobbying activities has also been prohibited.
The global gag rule does not reduce abortions. Instead, it denies funds to organizations that provide desperately needed family planning services that actually help reduce the incidence of abortion. To the extent that the most effective providers of comprehensive reproductive health services in the developing world become ineligible to receive U.S. aid, the rates of unintended pregnancy will increase among their patient populations, and the rates of abortion and disease will rise correspondingly.
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