If the past week is any representation of what the next four years will be, Trump has clearly set the tone for his presidency. Although he has been president for little over a week, Trump has already passed executive orders that contradicted the values propagated by the largest protests the United States has ever seen, proving that Trump isn’t in the business of listening to any opposing viewpoints.
Unless Trump has been living under a rock, which is improbable based on his Twitter account, it would have been difficult for him to miss over three million Americans who took to the streets over a week ago to participate in the Women’s March. According to Vox, even without the sister marches across the globe, the result was perhaps the largest demonstration in United States history.
While the signs ranged from “I stand with Standing Rock” to “Black Lives Matter” to “Women’s Rights are Human Rights” emphasizing the much-needed intersectionality in the feminist movement, there was a general consensus of preserving a woman’s reproductive health and having the right over their own bodies (oh my, the horror).
But despite the blatant support for women’s healthcare that over three million Americans attempted to convey to the new president, Trump made it very clear that he had no interest in listening. Four days after the Women’s March, Trump succinctly reinstated the Mexico City Agreement, more commonly known as Global Gag Rule, that prevents international healthcare organizations from receiving any amount of US money for performing, or even talking about, abortions, even if those activities aren’t funded with U.S. money. As explained by DemocracyNow!, an organization that receives less than a dollar of U.S money can no longer offer abortions as a viable option, much less provide a woman with any amount of safe, reliable information about abortions. This ruling could also have lasting effects on health issues such as s Zika and HIV/AIDS prevention. Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood, conjectures that the Global Gag Rule ruthlessly jeopardizes thousands of women’s lives due to the lack of access to adequate healthcare as clinics shut down as a result of the Gag Rule.
Trump's promptness to revive the Gag Rule surrounded by seven other men not only asserts Trump as a “pro-life” president, but continues to bolster Trump as an adversary to both women’s healthcare advocates and the entire feminist movement. Problematic? I think so.
While no one in their right mind expected Trump to be swayed by the protests, the swiftness in which Trump passed the Global Gag Rule after millions of Americans voiced their insistence on the protection for women’s health is concerning to many Americans.
If this past week is any reflection of what is in store for the next four years, activists better start preparing. If Americans thought they were getting a receptive president, Trumps’s reaction to the Women’s March proved them wrong.
