Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Trump's 'Mexico City' Abortion Order Could Affect 15 Times The Funding Of Previous Ones
The Wall Street Journal: Opponents Say Trump’s ‘Mexico City’ Abortion Policy Could Have Broader Reach
Opponents of the so-called Mexico City policy that prevents foreign aid organizations from receiving U.S. funds if they provide or offer information about abortions say the directive President Donald Trump issued this week could affect 15 times more funding than the policy did under previous Republican presidents. Previous versions of the rule applied to family planning programs funded by the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development, which comprise roughly $600 million in spending. (Schwartz, 1/25)
The New York Times: Clinics For World’s Vulnerable Brace For Trump’s Anti-Abortion Cuts
The clinic, tucked discreetly inside the student health center on the University of Dakar campus, prescribes birth control pills, hands out condoms and answers questions about sex that young women are nervous about asking in this conservative Muslim country. The clinic performs no abortions, nor does it discuss the procedure or give advice on where to get one. Senegal, by and large, outlaws abortion. But for other health services like getting contraceptives, said Anne Lancelot, the Sahel director at the organization that runs the clinic, “there is a very high demand.” (Searcey, Onishi and Sengupta, 1/26)
The New York Times: Q. And A.: How Trump’s Revival Of An Abortion Ban Will Affect Women In Kenya
This week President Trump revived a ban on providing foreign aid to health providers abroad that offer abortion counseling as part of their family planning services. Caitlin Parks, a family planning fellow at Washington University in St. Louis, provides reproductive health services to women at clinics and a teaching hospital in western Kenya. Her clinics receive American funding, and she says that the ban, called by critics the global gag rule, could have a major impact on poor women and communities like the ones she serves. (Ingber, 1/26)
The Hill: Senators Move To Nix Trump's Ban On Funding NGOs That Provide Abortions
Democratic senators are moving to permanently repeal the so-called Mexico City policy after President Trump reinstated the ban on U.S. funding for international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that provide abortions. Forty-seven senators — led by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) — introduced legislation to prohibit the Trump administration from using "certain restrictive eligibility requirements" to keep nongovernmental organizations from getting funding. (Carney, 1/25)
The Washington Post fact checks the messaging surrounding the decision —
The Washington Post: Does Trump’s Mexico City Policy Ban Funds To Groups That ‘Even Mention’ Abortion?
On Jan. 23, 2017, President Trump signed a memo reinstating a Reagan-era policy that bans U.S. aid to international health groups that promote abortions. Supporters of the policy call it the Mexico City policy, named after the city in which the law was first announced. Opponents call it the “global gag rule,” for reasons we will explore in this fact check. (Lee, 1/26)
And in other news —
Los Angeles Times: U.S. Abortion Rate Drops To A New Low, But There’s A Fight Over Why
The U.S. abortion rate has hit its lowest point since the landmark Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court ruling made the procedure legal nationwide in 1973, according to a new study. ... Activists on both sides of the contentious abortion policy debate welcomed the findings but did not agree on what is causing the decline. (Agrawal, 1/25)
The Philadelphia Inquirer: After Women's March, Philly Sees Surge In Planned Parenthood Activists
Leaders of Planned Parenthood Southeastern Pennsylvania quickly realized that they had vastly underestimated their supporters’ desire to gather in solidarity and a show of strength. More than 400 women and men packed a West Philadelphia church on Wednesday evening, eager to fight back against the Trump administration’s anti-abortion policies and GOP efforts to end federal funding of Planned Parenthood’s health services for low-income patients. (McCullough, 1/25)
