The International Community of Women living with HIV joins the rest of the world and advocates to celebrate the revoking of the revoking Mexican City Rule (Global Gag Rule-GAG rule) by President Joe Biden as he took office as the new President elect of the United States.
This cruel inconsiderate health policy decision was first created by the Republican President Ronald Reagan in 1984 and it was dangerously reintroduced and propelled by also the Republican Donald Trump in 2017 a few months after he assumed office as the President of the United States of America. Trump did not only reintroduce the policy to prohibit foreign nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) who receive U.S. global health assistance or even use their own non-U.S funds from providing legal abortion services or referrals and advocating for abortion law reforms, he also expanded it to encompass all funding for development assistance for health, including for the first time, life-saving HIV programs.
In the last four years, we have witness slowed Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights services and HIV prevention among women and girls, leading to maternal and child mortality due to unsafe abortions, increased HIV prevalence among socially among adolescent girls and young women in sub Saharan Africa.
Many organisations like Marie Stopes International suffered significant funding shortages and this affected their ability to continue to provide comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care. Restrictions On US Global Health Assistance Reduce Key Health Services In Supported Countries (2018), which revealed 28 percent (56 of 198) of organizations reported stopping or reducing at least one service as from the PEPFAR program in response to the policy. The ripple effects of the policy however were felt more in the developing countries and NGOs in Sub-Saharan Africa including Uganda. These settings represent areas with pre-existing poor sexual and reproductive health outcomes, including high rates of HIV, unintended pregnancy, unsafe abortion, and maternal mortality. Domestically supported health care-centered NGOs felt the effects harder but the most impact was experienced by women and girls.
“ICWEA seeks to empower & build capacity of women and girls living with HIV to claim their Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) and space through advocacy, women’s movement building, capacity building, and strategic partnerships – all of which are areas that were critically affected by the gag rule – causing major disruptions in the provision of services to women living with HIV.” ICWEA Project officer.
Do you know that celebration of such a big win deserves to be jealously protected to ensure that the access to essential healthcare is not a game of chance left to be influenced by which political party wins the U.S Presidency? To do this, ICWEA joins Global HIV activists in not only fighting for health justice around the world, but also advocating that President Joe Biden not only repeals the GAG rule but enacts a permanent legislation that bars it from ever being reinstated by establishing a permanent policy that supports sexual and reproductive health and rights for all, in the U.S. and globally.
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