PAI Urges Congress to Repeal Global Gag Rule, Highlights Devastating Effects on Women’s Health

On Wednesday, PAI submitted testimony into the record for the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing titled “Unique Challenges Women Face in Global Health,” detailing deeply harmful impacts to providers, health systems and communities documented since the policy’s imposition of the Global Gag Rule.

Read PAI’s testimony here.

“The reinstatement and expansion of the Global Gag Rule demonstrates how repressive political decisions from other countries can affect population health and wellbeing in countries like Uganda. The Global Gag Rule wreaked havoc by cutting off funding for much-needed health services, especially amongst communities that are already underserved,” said Moses Mulumba, Executive Director, Center for Health, Human Rights and Development (CEHURD) in his hearing testimony. “It is not an easy choice to comply and keep the funding or refuse and lose access to those resources: jobs and indeed lives are on the line. Nevertheless, CEHURD cannot work on one area of health and not others, or prioritize some human rights and not others. This would compromise our values as an institution.”

“It would be senseless to examine the global health challenges women face without acknowledgement of the harm levied by the Trump administration via the Global Gag Rule,” said Jonathan Rucks, PAI Senior Director of Policy and Advocacy.

“As we have heard firsthand from organizations impacted including partners like CEHURD, the policy exacerbates existing barriers to services and suppresses efforts of local champions working on solutions—which will undoubtedly lead to worse outcomes for women and girls. If members of Congress truly care about the health and lives of women and vulnerable groups, they will pass the Global HER Act to permanently repeal this overreaching policy.”

The day of the hearing, more than 41 organizations issued a statement calling on Congress to permanently repeal the Global Gag Rule by passing the Global HER Act.

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PAI champions policies that put women in charge of their reproductive health. We work with policymakers in Washington and our network of partners in developing countries to remove roadblocks between women and the services and supplies they need. For 50 years, we’ve helped women succeed by upholding their basic rights. To learn more, visit pai.org.