Trump bans federal funding for foreign NGOs that support abortion
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Monday signed a decree barring US federal funding for foreign NGOs that support abortion, relaunching a battle that has long divided Americans.
“The president, it’s no secret, has made it very clear he’s a prolife president. He wants to stand up for all Americans, including the unborn,” White House spokesman Sean Spicer said.
“The reinstatement of this policy is not just something that echoes that value, but respects taxpayer funding as well.”
The restrictions prohibit foreign non-governmental organisations that receive US family planning assistance from using non- US funding to provide abortion services, information, counseling or referrals.
They are also barred from engaging in advocacy to promote abortion.
The move comes just two days after women led a massive protest march in Washington — with satellite rallies across the country and around the world — to defend their rights, including to abortion.
And it also comes a day after the 44th anniversary of Roe v Wade, the landmark US Supreme Court decision that legalised abortion in 1973.
Trump’s move deepened concern among already apprehensive US family planning and women’s rights organisations.
“The world’s most vulnerable women will suffer as a direct result of this policy, which undermines years of effort to improve women’s health,” said Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards.
“This will cause clinic closures around the world -- resulting in more unintended pregnancy and unsafe abortion, not less.”
She vowed her group, the biggest US provider of family planning, will ‘never stop fighting’ for access to reproductive health services.
Trump’s executive order is a “clear assault on both access to health care and free speech,” the American Civil Liberties Union said.
Stenny Hoyer, a Democratic leader in the House of Representatives, sharply criticised Trump for using his first week in office “to attack women’s health.”
“It should be no surprise to the millions of women and men who gathered in protest this weekend across the country — and around the world — that Republicans are focused more on making it harder for women to access health care than on the serious economic and security challenges we face,” he said.
Meanwhile, anti- abortion activists cheered the move.
“Recognising and affirming the universal ideal that all human beings have inherent worth dignity, is vital to making America great again,” tweeted Family Research Council leader Tony Perkins, reprising Trump’s campaign slogan. — AFP