Reproductive rights under siege

Donald trump has reinstated the Reagan-era “global gag rule.”

In one of his first acts as president, Donald Trump has reinstated a federal ban on U.S. funding for international health organizations that counsel women on family planning options that include abortion.

The Mexico City policy, also known as the global gag rule, was first put in place by President Ronald Reagan in 1984. It prohibits giving U.S. funding to nongovernmental organizations that offer or advise on a wide range of family planning and reproductive health options if they include abortion ― even if U.S. dollars are not specifically used for abortion-related services.

Since then, the gag rule has been something of a political football, rescinded and reinstated as soon as presidents take office. President Bill Clinton did away with the rule, President George W. Bush reinstated it and then President Barack Obama again revoked it in 2009.

Trump’s executive order Monday comes one day after the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court case that guaranteed a woman’s right to have an abortion, and in the week of the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. It’s also two days after millions of people turned out to protest Trump and many of his policies in women’s marches.

Meanwhile, the conservative-controlled House is up to some freedom-stripping mischief of their own:

Since the 1970s, the Hyde Amendment has prohibited the use of federal funds for abortions. The rule has always functioned as a budget rider attached to individual federal appropriations bills. But as early as Tuesday, the House could vote to make it permanent. If members of the House approve the bill, they’ll be moving on what has long been a priority for anti-abortion groups just days after the Women’s Marches, in which millions of Americans demonstrated against President Donald Trump in what may have been the largest protest in US history. Enshrining the Hyde Amendment into law was one of Trump’s primary campaign promises to the pro-life movement.

The bill, dubbed the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act, would prohibit the use of any federal funds to pay for abortion or for health benefit plans that include abortion coverage. Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), the bill’s author, proposed a similar version of the legislation in 2013 and 2015. Both versions passed the House but not the Senate.

The Hyde Amendment has always impacted low-income women the most—it makes it impossible to use Medicaid funding for almost all abortions. But as a budget rider, the amendment has to be renewed by Congress every year. If Smith’s bill becomes law, that would no longer be the case; the prohibition would become permanent and could only be reversed through new legislation in the future. If the bill were to make it to the Senate, it would require 60 votes to pass; there are 52 Republican senators.

By: dave-dr-gonzo

David Hirsch, a.k.a. Dave "Doctor" Gonzo*, is a renegade record producer, video producer, writer, reformed corporate shill, and still-registered lobbyist for non-one-percenter performing artists and musicians. He lives in a heavily fortified compound in one of Manhattan's less trendy neighborhoods.

* Hirsch is the third person to use the pseudonym, a not-so-veiled tribute to journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson, with the permission of his predecessors Gene Gaudette of American Politics Journal (currently webmaster and chief bottlewasher at Liberaland) and Stephen Meese at Smashmouth Politics.