The Mexico City Policy or Global Gag Rule is a policy that limits federal funding to non-governmental organizations that provide or promote abortion related services.  It is called the Global Gag Rule because it stifles public debate and free speech on abortion and birth control issues.  Any non-governmental organization that doesn’t provide abortions to women are eligible for the funding.  The only exceptions to the Global Gag Rule are for women to which one of the following has occurred: rape, incest, or she has a life threatening condition.  If one of these three things happens then the clinic is able to provide her with an abortion without the risk of having their federal funding eliminated. 

The Global Gag Rule is also limiting the organizations access to birth control.  Thus they can’t distribute birth control which leads to an increase in the countries population and abortion rates rise.  This policy also makes it so that women aren’t being exposed to accurate medical information.  It limits the education that clinics can provide women with in regard to their own bodies and their reproductive options. 

The Global Gag Rule was created by President Ronald Reagan in 1984.  Due to this policy many international health agencies no longer received some of their funding because they wouldn’t change their policies to meet the new standards.  However, in 1993 President Bill Clinton overturned the Global Gag Rule making those health agencies that were eliminated from the federal funding eligible for funding again.  When President George W. Bush came to office in January 2001 his first order of business was to reinstate the Global Gag Rule that President Clinton had canceled.  He thought that American taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay for abortion whether it be on United States soil or abroad. 

The Global Gag Rule has affected countries around the world.  These countries are the Dominican Republic, Nepal, Romania, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.  Some of these countries laws regarding abortion are being compromised because of the Global Gag Rule.  In South Africa if an organization wants federal funding they can’t give the women the option of having an abortion, but their law states that it is illegal for a woman not to be given the option of having an abortion and told where to get one if that is her decision.  The United States government’s decisions are affecting other countries laws. 

             The Global Gag Rule is really affecting how organizations handle the spread of HIV/AIDS.  The organizations are still allowed to educate the people on the spread and contraction of HIV/AIDS but they can’t provide contraception to help stop the spread of this disease.  Which leaves the people to either go else where for their contraception or not use it at all, which isn’t helping decrease the spread of HIV/AIDS or Sexual Transmitted Infections?

            The Global Gag Rule needs to be re-evaluated and look at the all the new data that has been collected in the last few years.  With the reinstatement of this policy it has cost many families their mothers, daughters, wives, and sisters.  Women in foreign countries who are just trying to seek proper Gynecology and Obstetric care are taking the fall for a United States policy.  Why should these women have to die because of what someone half way around the world thinks abortion and birth control?   

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_gag_rule

http://www.globalgagrule.org/index.htm