Abortions Rise Worldwide When US Cuts Funding To Women’s Health Clinics, Study Finds

Image via Humanosphere

See update at end of article regarding new lawsuit filed against the Trump Administration.

By Yana Rodgers, Professor of Labor Studies, Rutgers University. First published on The Conversation

Fulfilling Republican efforts to “defund Planned Parenthood,” the Trump administration announced on Feb. 22 it would end federal funding to health providers that perform abortions.

This new ruling is the domestic version of the “global gag rule” that Trump imposed in 2017. It cuts U.S. global health funding from organizations abroad that perform – or even talk about – abortions, including the International Planned Parenthood Federation.

First implemented under Ronald Reagan in 1984, the global gag rule has been rescinded by every Democrat and reinstated by every Republican to occupy the Oval Office, reflecting the partisan nature of abortion.

Supporters of the global gag rule say defunding abortion providers will reduce abortions. However, researchers from Stanford University in 2011 found that this U.S. policy actually made women in sub-Saharan Africa twice as likely to have an abortion.

Gag rule increases abortions in Latin America and Africa

My new study, published in November 2018, confirms those findings in Africa and shows that the global gag rule had an even greater effect in Latin America.

Analyzing abortion data from 51 developing countries between 2001 and 2008 – which encompassed the reproductive decisions of about 6.3 million women – I found that women in Latin America were three times more likely to have an abortion while the global gag rule was in effect.

Reflecting this impact, the percentage of pregnancies in Latin America that ended in abortion rose from 23 percent in 1994, under the Clinton administration, to 32 percent by 2010, after two terms of the Bush administration.

In the United States, where abortion is legal nationwide, about 18 to 23 percent of pregnancies end in abortion.

How a US law hurts women abroad

Funding cuts under the global gag rule cause health care staff reductions, clinic closures and contraceptive shortages. Without family planning counseling and birth control, there are more unintended pregnancies – and, consequently, more abortions.

Numerous studies confirm that making abortions harder to get doesn’t stop them from happening. It just makes them less safe, because the procedure is not necessarily performed in sterile facilities by qualified doctors.

Latin America, a heavily Catholic region, has the world’s most restrictive abortion laws. Six countries, including Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador, completely ban abortion. Others permit it only in extreme cases like rape, incest or maternal health.

Latin America also has the world’s highest rate of illicit abortions, according to a 2017 study in The Lancet. Seventy-five percent of all abortions in Latin America are performed illegally.

Since Trump reinstated the global gag rule in 2017, health workers in developing countries have reported drastic reductions in the availability of contraception, teen sex education and family planning services.

If the U.S. follows this trend, the domestic gag rule will soon push abortion rates up domestically, too.

Followup from Anne:

American Medical Association, Planned Parenthood Sue Over Trump's 'Gag Rule' on Family Planning Clinics TIME Magazine

On Tuesday March 5, 2019 the American Medical Association and Planned Parenthood jointly filed a federal court lawsuit chalenging a new domestic Trump Administration rule that impacts family-planning money. Simply stated, the proposed new guidelines seek to defund family-planning grant money to any organization that is also an abortion provider. For decades federal funds cannot be used to reimburse any organization for actual abortions. Now the Trump administration seeks to strike at the heart of any Planned Parenthood clinic, even though the vast majority do not offer abortion services. In doing so, the Trump Administration seeks to destroy the largest supplier of basic healthcare services — across a wide range of healthcare services noteven related to reproductive health generally — to poor women in America.

Donald Trump and Beto O'Rourke Duke It Out In El Paso As Congress Works Against A New Shutdown

President Donald Trump held the first rally of his 2020 re-election campaign Monday at the El Paso County Coliseum while possible Democratic challenger Beto O'Rourke hosted a competing rally across the street. Image REUTERS/Leah Mills

By Julián Aguilar and Patrick Svitek for The Texas Tribune

EL PASO — President Donald Trump kicked off his first major rally of the year here the same way he campaigned during his successful 2016 bid: by unleashing a torrent of criticism on the media, pushing back against allegations of collusion with Russia, and promising once more to end illegal immigration and build a wall on the southern border.

Across the street, one of his potential 2020 rivals — former Texas Congressman and El Paso native Beto O'Rourke — held a competing rally that drew thousands of people.

Standing beneath an American flag flanked by red signs that read “finish the wall,” the president tossed plenty of fresh red meat to the capacity crowd, which periodically interrupted him with chants of “build the wall!”

The rally came as members of Congress reportedly agreed to the terms of a funding deal that would avert another partial government shutdown. Although last year’s breakdown was over funding for Trump's border wall, the impasse this week concerned bed space for detained undocumented immigrants.

Shortly after taking the stage at the El Paso County Coliseum, the president said he was told about a reported deal but that he preferred to address his roughly 6,500 supporters before learning about the details of the agreement. Regardless of what's in the compromise, Trump said, “Just so you know, we’re building the wall anyway.”

Trump also repeated dubious claims about the impact that the fencing that runs through several miles of El Paso County has had on violent crime.

“You know where it made a big difference, right here in El Paso,” he said to raucous applause. “I spoke to people that have been here a long time. They said when that wall went up, it’s a whole different ball game.”

Local and state lawmakers have pushed back against those claims, citing federal statistics to back them up.

From 1993 to 2004, El Paso’s overall violent crime rate per 100,000 residents was higher than the country’s average, according to FBI and El Paso Police Department statistics. From 2005-08 — before fencing was built along the banks of the Rio Grande — El Paso’s violent crime rate fell below the country’s average. It began to rise again over the next four years.

Trump supporter Michael Lightbourn said the wall has helped deter crime and that he supported the president’s quest to build more.

“Between 2003 and 2005, three of my trucks were stolen,” said Lightbourn, who owns a high-end classic car restoration business. He added that it was ridiculous to label the president a racist for his immigration agenda.

“He’s not racist,” he said. “Just look at all the people that are here. And they are black, white and Hispanic."

Trump supporters gathered Monday in El Paso for President Donald Trump's rally. Image: Jesus Rosales for The Texas Tribune

As Trump spoke, O’Rourke led a march to a park just steps away from the coliseum. There, the former congressman and U.S. Senate candidate pressed his case — to raucous cheers — that El Paso is “safe not because of walls but in spite of walls.”

EL PASO — President Donald Trump kicked off his first major rally of the year here the same way he campaigned during his successful 2016 bid: by unleashing a torrent of criticism on the media, pushing back against allegations of collusion with Russia, and promising once more to end illegal immigration and build a wall on the southern border.

Across the street, one of his potential 2020 rivals — former Texas Congressman and El Paso native Beto O'Rourke — held a competing rally that drew thousands of people.

Standing beneath an American flag flanked by red signs that read “finish the wall,” the president tossed plenty of fresh red meat to the capacity crowd, which periodically interrupted him with chants of “build the wall!”

The rally came as members of Congress reportedly agreed to the terms of a funding deal that would avert another partial government shutdown. Although last year’s breakdown was over funding for Trump's border wall, the impasse this week concerned bed space for detained undocumented immigrants.

Shortly after taking the stage at the El Paso County Coliseum, the president said he was told about a reported deal but that he preferred to address his roughly 6,500 supporters before learning about the details of the agreement. Regardless of what's in the compromise, Trump said, “Just so you know, we’re building the wall anyway.”

Trump also repeated dubious claims about the impact that the fencing that runs through several miles of El Paso County has had on violent crime.

“You know where it made a big difference, right here in El Paso,” he said to raucous applause. “I spoke to people that have been here a long time. They said when that wall went up, it’s a whole different ball game.”

Local and state lawmakers have pushed back against those claims, citing federal statistics to back them up.

From 1993 to 2004, El Paso’s overall violent crime rate per 100,000 residents was higher than the country’s average, according to FBI and El Paso Police Department statistics. From 2005-08 — before fencing was built along the banks of the Rio Grande — El Paso’s violent crime rate fell below the country’s average. It began to rise again over the next four years.

Trump supporter Michael Lightbourn said the wall has helped deter crime and that he supported the president’s quest to build more.

“Between 2003 and 2005, three of my trucks were stolen,” said Lightbourn, who owns a high-end classic car restoration business. He added that it was ridiculous to label the president a racist for his immigration agenda.

“He’s not racist,” he said. “Just look at all the people that are here. And they are black, white and Hispanic."

Former congressman and possible presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke marched in his own rally Monday. Image: Ivan Pierre Aguirre for The Texas Tribune

As Trump spoke, O’Rourke led a march to a park just steps away from the coliseum. There, the former congressman and U.S. Senate candidate pressed his case — to raucous cheers — that El Paso is “safe not because of walls but in spite of walls.”

“We can show the rest of the country ... that walls do not make us safer,” O’Rourke said, arguing such barriers force immigrants to cross in more remote, dangerous stretches of the border.

“We know that walls do not save lives,” he added. “Walls end lives.”

Trump loomed large at the O'Rourke rally — both figuratively and literally. As O'Rourke spoke, the president could be seen taking the stage at his own rally on a monitor set up in the parking lot of the coliseum — right behind the park.

O’Rourke received a rock star reception during the march, which seemed to include just as many chants urging him to run for president as those against Trump and the border wall. About 7,000 people went to see O'Rourke speak at the park, according to an aide, who cited law enforcement.

Fielding reporters’ questions about 2020 along the way, O’Rourke kept the focus on the unity of El Paso in the face of Trump.

"I'm gonna follow the community’s lead, and that’s what for me tonight is all about, nothing less and nothing more," O'Rourke told reporters on a conference call hours before the march.

Inside the coliseum, Trump rarely referred to O'Rourke by name but repeatedly mentioned his close loss last year to incumbent U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.

"They’ll say Beto O’Rourke had a wonderful rally of about 15 people [tonight]," he said.

At one point, Trump said the El Paso Fire Department allowed 10,000 people into the arena although the capacity is several thousand fewer. The El Paso Times reached out to the fire department, and officials there confirmed the president's statement wasn't true.

The president was also consistent in his treatment of the media, which he called “fake” and “dishonest” several times.

“We have suffered a totally dishonest media, and we’ve won and it’s driving them crazy,” he said, later adding that the media was complicit in covering up for his former rival, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and her fellow Democrats.

Before Trump took the stage, Cruz spoke to the crowd and repeated the line about the success of El Paso’s barrier before retelling the immigration story of his Cuban father.

“There is a right way to come to this country, which is you stand in line, you follow the rules and you come here seeking the American dream,” he said.

The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.