Pelosi Statement on Trump Administration Renewing Global Gag Rule

May 15, 2017

Washington, D.C. – Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi issued the following statement today after the Trump Administration approved a plan to reinstate and significantly expand the Global Gag Rule, also known as the Mexico City Policy, which limits U.S. funding for organizations providing basic health care and family planning services to vulnerable families around the world:

"In a cruel interpretation of Women's Health Month, the Trump Administration is acting to endanger millions of women who rely on U.S.-funded health assistance around the world. Reinstating the Global Gag Rule drags us back to a disgraceful past in which bureaucrats and politicians – not families and physicians – controlled women's private health decisions.

"Under the Global Gag Rule, all organizations that receive health funding from the United States will be forced to provide incomplete medical information, advice and care to women in need. When last in place, this policy crippled the ability of women to make informed reproductive health decisions, leading to a global spike in unintended pregnancies, maternal complications and abortions. The Trump Administration's version of the rule will cause even more harm, affecting many of the world's most vulnerable women, including those suffering from HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other life-threatening diseases.

"From the White House to the Congress, Republicans are obsessed with dismantling women's right to make their own intimate reproductive health decisions. We have a moral responsibility to stand up to such destructive and dangerous decisions."