Since the inaugural protests and the Women’s March on Washington, it seems that Trump supporters want everyone else to employ a policy of “wait and see” when it comes to disagreeing with the President. Believe it or not, I began his term doing just that. Given that I did not vote for him, I do disagree with a large majority of his platform but nonetheless, I would love for him to be successful in his new position as President. As American citizens, we all hope that our leader can take on every bit of responsibility that is handed to them and effectively navigate our country through the issues it is facing. Within less than a week, President Trump showed us what we really have to hope for.
“Make America Great Again” now truly means returning not only our country, but the world decades into the past. After reinstating the global gag rule under the guise of preventing abortions, President Trump has single-handedly set the stage for a drastic increase in unsafe abortions without the total number of abortions falling while additionally risking many women’s lives in the process.
Below the surface of the reinstatement lies a far more troubling issue; the global gag rule applies to all global health funding and not just family planning funding that is filtered through the United States Agency for International Development. This takes the issue far beyond a debate between pro-life and pro-choice policies. The drastic funding cut that this reinstatement initiates prevents global health organizations from providing STD prevention and treatment services, healthcare for pregnant women, access to contraception, and Zika virus prevention.
On top of failing to decrease abortion rates and providing women’s health care services, this policy actually still gets worse. In developing countries, many women receive their reproductive health care in the same facilities that provide general healthcare. Due to this drastic funding cut, nurses and doctors from general health facilities worldwide will be laid off.
Regardless of your pro-life or pro-choice tendencies, this policy should make you angry. Pro-lifers who say they genuinely care about the health and safety of what they deem to be unborn children should be concerned about a lack of Zika virus prevention, health care for pregnant women, and access to contraception to prevent unplanned pregnancies and lower abortion rates. This policy isn’t good for either side of the aisle. This policy is dangerous to the health of individuals across the world. This policy is regressive, anti-woman, and the epitome of what we all feared about a Trump presidency.
