Just days after the worldwide Women’s March, President Donald Trump curtailed abortion access for women globally.
This past weekend, people of all genders all over the world marched in solidarity in a historic assembly. Inspired by the Women’s March on Washington slated to occur just one day after Trump’s inauguration, organizers in 673 cities across the globe from Nairobi, Kenya to New Delhi, India, to Sydney, Australia organized sister marches, according to the Women’s March. In total, nearly 5 million people marched across the globe, advocating a variety of issues. Chief among their demands was the respect for women’s rights as human rights.
Women’s rights weren’t the only thing championed, however. Demonstrators across the U.S. and abroad carried signs bearing messages in support of Muslims, immigrants, black, brown and native communities, LGBTQ+ communities, people with disabilities and survivors of sexual assault. While anti-Trump messages were high on the agenda, marches such as London’s Women’s March, where demonstrators protested the Brexit, also served as platforms for locals to vocalize on their own nations’ issues.
These marches were intended to send a clear message to the new administration of the White House: justice and equity for all. This message came not only from American citizens and residents, but also from sympathizers across the globe, concerned not just about the sociopolitical climate in the U.S. but in their own nations as well.
And with good reason.
Just two days after the march, in one of his first acts as president, Trump reinstated the Mexico City policy, a federal halt on U.S. foreign aid to international NGOs that provide information on or access to abortion as part of family planning. This policy, also known as the global gag rule, was first introduced by Ronald Reagan in 1984. Since its introduction, in what is comparable to an absurd game of bipartisan volleyball, it has been rescinded and reinstated five times —rescinded by Democratic presidents Clinton and Obama, and reinstated by Republicans Bush Sr., Bush Jr. and most recently, Trump.
Despite the cavalier way the policy has been batted about, it is no game. This policy has severe and often deadly implications for women in developing nations across the globe. International health organizations are often forced to shut down clinics, forcing women to search for services elsewhere or turn to makeshift solutions.
The Guttmacher Institute, an opponent of the global gag rule, argues that by withholding aid, the policy does not eliminate abortion, which will occur regardless. Instead, it will result in women attempting to terminate their pregnancies through dangerous and potentially life-threatening methods. According to the World Health Organization, 21 million women in developing countries already have unsafe abortions every year. With the family planning technologies that exist in this day and age, there is no reason for women to die in pursuit of bodily autonomy and a better future.
Indeed, for girls in these developing countries, access to safe abortions and reproductive planning could mean the difference between a life of poverty and despair and one of hope and opportunity.
According to what Rewire calls the “Girl Effect,” studies show that when girls delay childbirth, they are more likely to complete their education, marry later and have fewer children. Girls who are educated go on to earn more than uneducated girls and these earnings are usually reinvested into their families and communities. Women who are educated are also more likely to have healthy babies, who they in turn educate. Perhaps most importantly, educated girls are more likely to gain economic independence, develop strong self-esteem and advocate for themselves and others.
These are the kinds of long-lasting changes for which women worldwide continue fighting. Nearly a century after women achieved suffrage in the U.S., women are still advocating for equal pay, for campuses and communities free of sexual assault, for the rights and visibility of transgender women and minorities and yes — for women worldwide to choose, if, when and how to become mothers.
Twenty-one million women’s lives are at stake here. If proponents of the global gag rule are so concerned with savings lives, they can start with those.
These issues hit closer to home (and campus) than you might think. To get involved, students of all genders can reach out to Students Advocating for Gender Equality (SAGE) and the Women’s Center and GLBT Center in Talley Student Union. Planned Parenthood is currently under siege and at risk of losing funding across the nation — it can use your help, whether through donations, volunteering or making a call to your congressional representative. Finally, a conversation about reproductive access is impossible without a conversation about sexual assault. Take part in Student Government’s Town Hall on sexual assault on campus, Thursday at 4 p.m. in the Talley Coastal Ballroom.
