It’s been just over a week since Donald J. Trump’s inauguration and already we’ve seen more drastic changes than many thought possible. He has signed an executive order working to diminish Obamacare. He has removed all references to “lgbt,” “global warming,” “lesbian,” “bisexual,” “climate change,” and “civil rights.” He has signed executive orders to cut sanctuary cities and begin the workings of a wall on the Mexican-American boarder. He has also reinstated Ronald Reagan’s 1984 “Mexico City Policy,” also known as the “global gag rule,” baring non-governmental organizations like Planned Parenthood from using taxpayer dollars to help fund their companies.
Trump’s anti-abortion actions have been some of his most aggressive thus far. He has promised sweeping anti-abortion acts and plans on nominating a Supreme Court justice who would overturn Roe vs. Wade. The global gag rule is a dangerous concept that has not only been reinstated by President Trump, but amplified.
In a statement from the PAI, “Trump’s Global Gag Rule is cruel and unusual in that it massively expands an already harmful policy. This grotesque expansion targets the most effective health organizations in 60 low and middle income countries.”
Trump’s GAG rule goes far beyond abortion and even contraception. The bill will likely also prevent global health organizations such as Doctors without Boarders from offering HIV prevention and maternal Zika virus care and prevention. Trump’s narrow focus on the GAG rule is putting many more lives in danger.
There’s something important for Mr. Trump, and so many others to understand. Banning abortions, banning Planned Parenthood, banning whatever it is that pisses him off next, will not stop these things. He’s not banning abortion, he’s banning safe abortion. He’s only putting more lives at risk for botched jobs that often times lead to the death of the woman.
Abortion has been a taboo topic in America for decades. Whether you’re pro-life or pro-choice, there’s no doubt that you have a vehemently strong opinion on it. The easiest way to make a room tense and angry is to bring up abortion rights. People believe deeply and passionately on both ends of this spectrum.
Jackie Speier is one of those people. The representative of California’s 14th Congressional District, Speier has fought time and time again for women’s rights. This topic takes up full pages of her website, detailing her experiences as “the first member of Congress to advocate for fundamental reforms to end the epidemic of sexual assault in the military and on college campuses, and she is leading the fight against sexism in the fields of science and technology. She is also at the forefront of efforts to end discrimination and close the gender pay gap through ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment and passage of the Paycheck Fairness Act.”
Speier is a powerhouse voice for women’s rights, a cause that we so desperately need someone like her to stand up for. In 2011 Speier gave an impassioned speech on the senate floor in the midst of a debate on funding Planned Parenthood. In this unplanned speech Speier demolishes her male counterparts, delivering a graphic explanation of the abortion she underwent for medical reasons while 17 weeks pregnant.
"I lost a baby, but for you to stand on this floor and to suggest as you have that somehow this is a procedure that is either welcomed or done cavalierly or done without any thought is preposterous,” says Speier.
"It wasn’t planned," Speier says. A six year old speech, this is one that still draws national attention. ”It was one of those horrific circumstances where a member on the other side of the aisle was lying on the House floor, and I’m really sick and tired of people that have never had the experience of being pregnant or having an abortion speak out on it when they are speaking falsely.”
It’s important to Speier to to countless other woman to keep this dialogue alive. While catchy slogans such as “Our Body Our Choice” have resurfaced in the wake of the women’s march, it’s important to go beyond this. Call your representatives and tell them you believe in Planned Parenthood. That you support a women’s right to her own body. Pro-choice not mean pro-abortion, it means pro-freedom.
Abortions will not be stopped because the government stops funding them. These laws will put the United States back countless decades, back to a time of coat hanger abortions and bloody hotel rooms in shady “doctor’s” offices. A
