Trump's Global Gag Rule on Abortion Costs Health Clinics in Africa Millions in Aid

Trump's Global Gag on Abortion rule, GGR is wreaking havoc in the lives of women world over but most importantly in Uganda and other countries in Africa. 

According to a report published by journalist Laura Kasinof for the Intercept, in Uganda, sexual health clinics have suffered a major setback and cuts to funding. 

Kasinof pointed out, "In much of sub-Saharan Africa, the best health services are provided by charity organizations or the United Nations, which makes their populations extremely susceptible to massive funding cuts that can come when a foreign government changes its priorities." 

Despite the hurdles, according to the Guttmacher Institute, between 2003 and 2013, the percentage of married women in Uganda using modern contraception increased from 14 to 26 percent. But there wasn't much change in the percentage of sexually active, unmarried women who use modern contraception while the percentage actually declined when it came to poorer women in rural regions. 

"Maternal mortality in Uganda is high — 343 women for every 100,000 births in 2015 — and it’s not uncommon for women to have given birth to 10 children," Kasinof noted, adding, that the "GGR prohibits U.S. aid money from going to international organizations that either provide abortions, suggest abortions as a family planning method, or lobby to make abortion legal in foreign countries, even when they do so with non-U.S. funds." 

"We expect that Trump’s Global Gag Rule will stymie maternal health and family planning progress around the world," Serra Sippel, president of the Washington-based Center for Health and Gender Equity told the Intercept. "Now more than ever, progress in Uganda should be celebrated and sustained with funding for evidence-based health interventions. The United States should support — not obstruct — increased access to contraceptives for women to safely space and deliver pregnancies." 

Last month, in an interview published in the NPR, Kenyan reproductive health nurse Melvine Ouyo stated the US president's global war against abortion cost the oldest reproductive and sexual health clinic more than US$2 million in funding after it refused to follow the policy.