Ever since President George H.W. Bush has been in office, the Global Gag Rule has been repealed or reinstated almost immediately following the introduction of a new president. Democrats, such as Clinton and Obama, have always struck down the anti-abortion ruling while Trump has continued the tradition of his Republican counterparts by reestablishing it.

While the gag rule won’t end abortion across the world, the effects it will have on reproductive rights throughout can’t be overstated. 

Surrounded by seven men and not a single woman, President Trump signed the executive order reinstating the Global Gag Rule which would deprive federal funding from organizations that offer abortion services and prohibit them from speaking about it with patients.

“Trump’s global gag rule will obstruct and destroy the work of health care providers who are often women’s main — and sometimes only — source for reproductive health care, and their entry point for receiving a wide range of primary health care services,” said Suzanne Ehlers, president and CEO of Population Action International (PAI), in a statement.

Vox reports that the gag rule has been proven to have the opposite effects that its Republican supporters anticipate. For example, abortion rates in parts of the world have been shown to rise when the gag rule is in place because of a lack of access contraception and pregnancy prevention practices.

The gag rule will also result in an unforeseen incline in deaths related to complications during pregnancy.

The loss of funding to just one organization, Marie Stopes International, will reportedly “cause 6.5 million unintended pregnancies, 2.2 million abortions, 2.1 million unsafe abortions, and 21,700 maternal deaths just in Trump’s first term, from 2017 to 2020”, according to Vox.

Republicans appear to be hard-set on the belief that depriving women across the world of proper health care and placing them in direct danger is worth supporting their pro-life agenda.

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