Statement by NOW President Toni Van Pelt:

WASHINGTON — A new bill out of the U.S. House Committee on Appropriations would restore vital funding and protections for reproductive health and rights across the world and would finally repeal the devastating global gag rule, which President Trump has repeatedly expanded.

The FY20 State, Foreign Operations bill advanced through the House subcommittee today and is expected to go to the full Appropriations committee next week. The National Organization for Women strongly supports the proposed bill and urges the full committee to vote it through to the House floor.

One of the first actions of the Trump-Pence administration was to expand the “global gag rule,” which prohibits international health care providers from giving women truthful information about their reproductive choices. And ever since the administration has continued to decimate international family planning programs, including slashing funding to the United Nations Population Fund, which provides lifesaving resources to millions of women and girls around the world.

This appropriations bill includes the Global HER Act to repeal the global gag rule and rectifies these wrongs by restoring desperately-needed dollars to international reproductive health care programs. We urge the House to keep the momentum moving forward on this important bill.

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press@now.org , 202-570-4745

Statement by NOW President Toni Van Pelt:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Donald Trump announced an expanded “conscience rule,” otherwise known as a religious refusal, that will further erode the government’s role in protecting women’s health, replacing the delivery of health care with partisan, extremist politics.

The rule allows virtually any individual or entity involved in a patient’s care – from a hospital’s board of directors to the receptionist that schedules procedures – to put personal religious beliefs ahead of a patient’s health and deny basic medical care that includes abortion, reproductive health care and treatment for transgender patients.

The Hippocratic Oath dictates that medical professionals “do no harm,” but this new rule harms patients and tramples on their own deeply held values and beliefs. The medical care a patient receives is at the heart of our health care system–not the political beliefs or ideology of the office staff.  How can anyone count on their most personal medical decisions being respected–including end-of-life directives–if our health care system puts patients’ interests behind political considerations?

This new rule means rape survivors could be denied emergency birth control; same-sex couples could be denied fertility treatment, and women with an unintended pregnancy could be denied information and counseling on their options. Furthermore, health care providers take a pledge to provide care to anyone in need and this action is a violation of that fundamental standard.

Donald Trump has made it clear that he will block, impede, thwart and subvert our laws, constitutional norms and basic rights to advance his extremist anti-abortion agenda. His new rule invents a “right to discriminate” for those who oppose the scientific facts and constitutional protections associated with abortion care.

The Trump administration has taken this action ahead of the 2020 presidential election to incite his conservative base who oppose abortion and at the behest of conservative religious organizations who seek to advance their dangerous agenda regardless of whether it is sound medical practice. Meanwhile, millions of women and men in need will be denied crucial health care services.

His “conscience rule” is morally bankrupt, legally indefensible and unconscionable for anyone who cares about the constitutional protection of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  NOW supports a legal challenge to this blatantly political policy. We will work tirelessly to keep it from taking effect and continue to demand protection for women’s right to health care.

Contact

NOW Press, press@now.org, 202-570-4745

WASHINGTON, D.C. — It’s been reported that the U.S. is threatening to veto a United Nations (UN) resolution combatting the use of rape as a weapon of war because it calls for rape victims to have access to family planning and women’s health clinics.

This is only the most recent—and sickest—example of the Trump Administration’s hard line against any UN effort to promote sexual or reproductive health, on grounds that such efforts promote support for abortions. Trump also wants to block UN use of the word “gender,” asserting that the language is a cover for endorsement of transgender rights.

Under international law, conflict-related sexual violence is regarded as a crime against humanity.  During the Rwanda genocide of 1994, it was used with the intent of destroying an entire population.

Donald Trump doesn’t care about any of that.  In one of his first acts as president, he reinstituted the Global Gag Rule, which bars U.S. federal funding for non-governmental organizations that provide abortion counseling or referrals. This latest threat to the UN resolution is yet another attempt to deny access to abortion to women all over the world and kowtow to the religious extremists who fueled his political rise while abandoning responsibility for healing and bringing justice to survivors.  

Trump is aided in these efforts by a small group of other countries who seek to control women’s reproductive health, including Russia and China.  The Vatican and the “Holy See” at the UN is also constantly intervening to stop any progress towards expanding reproductive health access around the world, thereby limiting desperately needed aid for victims of this horrific violence.

This is disgusting. This is sick.  This is wrong. This must not be allowed to happen. NOW calls on the Trump Administration to support—and strengthen—UN action against sexual violence as a weapon of war, not water it down.  

Contact

NOW Press, press@now.org, 202-570-4745