End-of-the-Year Setback

So it seems that the global gag rule (more formally known as the “Mexico City Policy”) shall remain, at least for the time being. On Monday the House voted, 253-154, in favor of an omnibus spending bill that contains no language that would repeal the harmful and ignorant restriction. The Senate, surely, will follow suit in the coming days.

The gag rule, first introduced by Reagan, lifted temporarily by Clinton, and then reinstated by Bush on his first day of office, prevents the U.S. from granting any foreign aid to family planning agencies or NGOs that provide, discuss or really even think about abortions. Called the "gag rule" because it stifles free speech and public debate on abortion-related issues, the policy forces a cruel choice on foreign NGOs: accept U.S. assistance to provide essential health services – but with restrictions that may jeopardize the health of many patients – or reject the policy and lose vital U.S. funds, contraceptive supplies and technical assistance.

Just to give you an example of the far-reaching limits of this policy, one of the consequences is that health centers that operate in developing nations were told that they would not be allowed to so much as hang a poster that mentions abortion without potentially being denied funds for a provision of health services that has nothing to do with abortion. In addition, if a reproductive health organization provides abortions anywhere in the world and also runs separate family planning clinics which do not provide abortions, their funding can be cut off. Sadly, these are not just hypothetical situations as they are happening right now is Nigeria and Kenya.

Hope was in the air earlier this year as the Senate voted to repeal the policy and a landmark hearing before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs gave public health experts a much-needed opportunity to present the myriad consequences of the policy. Democrats pushed for adding language into the spending bill that would repeal or at least weaken the policy, but at the end of the day, the threat of a presidential veto was too great, and well, you know the rest...

On the very small but not insignificant upside, the spending bill does loosen the shackles of the mandate that at least one-third of U.S. global HIV prevention funds be used solely for programs that promote abstinence until marriage (which really seems like a no-brainer in light of the recent failure of abstinence-only education here in the U.S.)

This fight is not over, though. Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have pledged to the repeal the gag rule, if elected. On the first day of office, no less.

Hope prevails again.