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A Tale of Two Gag Rules — Side-by-Side Comparison of Global Gag Rule (GGR) Memoranda

PAI has put together a chart to visualize our analysis of the potential implications of the January 23, 2017 presidential memorandum expanding the Global Gag Rule to all “global health assistance furnished by all departments and agencies” of the U.S. government and to compare the latest version of the Global Gag Rule with its previous iteration during the administration of President George W. Bush. The true magnitude of the impact on global health programs of the expanded Trump Global Gag Rule is wholly dependent on the implementation of the forthcoming “plan” to be developed by the Secretary of State in coordination with the HHS Secretary and how the scope of U.S. government “global health assistance” is defined therein.

The Trump presidential memorandum specifically reinstates the Bush presidential memorandum of January 22, 2001—and by reference, the Standard Provisions contained in the March 28, 2001 memorandum. It is noteworthy and significant that the Trump presidential memorandum did not reinstate the August 29, 2003 Bush memorandum. Therefore, it is reasonable to argue that the January and March 2001 presidential memoranda, along with the accompanying Standard Provision, was the intended model for the implementation of the Trump GGR expansion with regard to process and types of recipients of assistance to which the GGR does and does not apply. However, lingering questions remain on how a number of entities, activities, and processes will be treated under the Trump GGR expansion, some of which are highlighted in yellow in the document below.