From bad to worse: global governance of abortion and the Global Gag Rule

Abstract

The Trump Administration’s Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance (PLGHA) significantly expands the “Global Gag Rule” – and, in so doing, weakens the global governance of abortion. By chilling debate, reducing transparency, ghettoising sexual and reproductive health and rights work, and interfering with research, PLGHA makes an already bad context demonstrably worse. Individual women suffer the most, as PLGHA inhibits ongoing efforts to reduce abortion-related morbidity and mortality.

Keywords

• abortion
• global gag rule
• sexual and reproductive health
• global health
• global governance