Global gag rule will export US violence

Women in the Global South will suffer under Trump’s ‘global gag rule’ (Photo: IFAA)

Engeline Mukanya and Sithulisiwe Moyo aren’t residents of Texas, Arkansas or Florida. They live in the Harare Province, Zimbabwe and are at a local clinic getting birth control.

Despite living some 2,500 miles away from the White House, they are set to be direct victims of Donald Trump’s assault on the right to choose. That’s the reality of the “global gag rule”.

The rule means non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that are funded by the United States government are left with a terrible choice. Should they abandon their pro-choice principles or lose a critical income stream?

“It’s unfortunate that we are so far away from America yet we are being caught in the crossfire of its politics,” said Engeline. “All we want is the freedom to space our births.”

Nineteen year old Sithulisiwe waited for two hours with her baby daughter to get the contraceptive pill. “I am too young to be a baby-making machine,” she said. “At least this clinic helps me avoid another pregnancy.”

Trump is poised to re-instate the “global gag rule”, more officially known as the Mexico City Policy. There’s been a legislative tug-of-war about the policy since its introduction—it’s been faithfully repealed by Democrats and re-instated by Republicans ever since.

When Ronald Reagan introduced the policy in 1985, the rule prevented foreign NGOs from receiving cash from the US global family planning pot if they “performed or actively promoted abortions”. But this wasn’t far enough for Trump—he has extended its remit not once, but twice.

In May 2017, he extended the rules, meaning any NGO providing “abortion services” wouldn’t receive cash for other health initiatives. That ended funding for public health initiatives tackling malaria and tuberculosis, and providing water and sanitation.

It forced programmes delivering lifesaving care in Uganda, Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya and South Africa to roll back services or stop them completely.

Two years later, in May 2019, Trump further expanded the gag rule so that sub-recipients of US-funding also couldn’t offer abortion care. So organisations that didn’t even directly receive US cash were unable to give women proper family planning advice and support.

This is the rule that threatens Engeline and Sithulisiwe’s care. Research estimates that between 2017 and 2021, the expansions meant 108,000 women and children died, and 360,000 new people were infected with HIV.

The global gag rule destroys the ability of women to exercise basic choice over their bodies and their lives in some of the poorest countries in the world. It’s a shameless attempt by Trump to appease his far right backers and solidify his abortion-attacking reputation.

But enforcing the West’s desires onto poorer nations isn’t an aberration—it’s woven into the past, present and future of international aid. As the foreign aid NGOs receive is funded by governments, it’s steeped in the history of Western imperialism. 

Imperialism continues to devastate many countries. But the West has long used aid as an imperialist weapon—Trump’s gag rule is nothing new, but simply a continuation of this bloody legacy.

Throughout history, the US and other capitalist nations have placed requirements on economies in the Global South, demanding they open up their economies to Western forces in return for aid.

So after countries broke the shackles of the British Empire and other colonial forces, they were forced into depending on aid from these Western powers. Today, Western governments trap impoverished countries in cycles of debt, where financial relief comes with nasty strings attached.

Now, Trump is choosing to double down on his deadly anti-choice agenda. Immediately reinstating and expanding the gag rule was one the far right wishlist of Project 2025.

Trumps attacks are despicable. They are an attempt to export his sexist, violent agenda across the globe—and women in the Global South will be among those paying the highest price.