Donald Trump has now officially secured a second term as president of the United States. Many are still reeling from the news that a convicted felon and sexual abuser has been voted into the most powerful position in the country. And the US’ hold on global politics and media means that those of us outside of the country also feel the impact.
As advocates for reproductive justice, we already know the damage that has and can be done by Trump. The Guttmacher Institute pulls no punches in stating that his election to president will “decimate” sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR).
The impact on US healthcare is being well-documented, but as a global fund dedicated to abortion, we want to look at the worldwide repercussions of a second Trump term.
Trump will undoubtedly reintroduce the Global Gag Rule.
Every Republican president since 1984 has signed the Mexico City Policy, otherwise known as the ‘Global Gag Rule’ into law. This prevents US foreign aid being given to organisations which provide, refer people for, or ‘promote’ abortion services.
In his previous stint as President, Trump actually expanded the policy. Earlier versions affected around $600 million of reproductive health funding. His expanded policy applied to all global health funding, amounting to approximately $12 billion.
The regular re-introduction of the Global Gag Rule has had a hugely detrimental impact on healthcare in the Global South. It has also affected how abortion is spoken about around the world, and further encouraged the idea that abortion is somehow ‘different’ to any other form of life-saving healthcare.
A global anti-abortion coalition could be re-ignited.
Just before he left office in 2020, Trump sponsored a document called the ‘Geneva Consensus Declaration on Promoting Women’s Health and Strengthening the Family’. It was signed by around 30 governments, with Brazil, Egypt, Hungary, Indonesia and Uganda as ‘core supporters’. The signatories agree to “Reaffirm that there is no international right to abortion, nor any international obligation on the part of states to finance or facilitate abortion”. Though never adopted by the UN, this is still a worrying coalition of countries willing to completely denounce abortion rights, and position LGBTI+ rights as somehow antithetical to ‘the family’.
It’s clear that anti-SRHR rhetoric will flourish under a Trump administration and infiltrate global advocacy processes. Funding for the United Nations Population Fund is also likely to be affected, as it was in Trump’s first term.
As a major imperialist power, the US pulls many strings when it comes to global politics, and particularly funding.
For example, it is the largest single donor of humanitarian assistance in Uganda. When this funding is retracted because of abortion stigma, healthcare programmes are shut down, and people die from lack of access to essential services, including but not limited to, safe abortion.
As SAAF grantee partner Abortion Support South Africa points out, the impact hits very differently depending on global context:
“In Africa, those of us working on abortion watched the US elections knowing that our funding is on the line. When the wrong side won, our US colleagues found comfort in the power of self-managed abortion. However, in Africa we do not yet have the infrastructure to weather this storm. I believe that the resource limitations we face in Africa are beyond what those in the Global North could imagine and that what we achieve with what we have is often miraculous.”
The Global Gag Rule is not new. Politicians restricting abortion is not new.
Many of the organisations we fund work in settings where access to abortion is extremely restricted. They have experienced the removal of funding due to their brave refusal to sign up to a policy which denounces the life-saving power of abortion. The resilience and ingenuity of those living under restrictive abortion laws is awe-inspiring. As is the feminist solidarity which exists among those who will support others in their community, and across borders, to access safe abortion, whatever the barriers.
SAAF grantee partner Las Libres expanded their medical abortion support from Mexico to the US following the repeal of Roe Vs Wade. Using knowledge from their own previously criminalised context, Las Libres volunteers have helped tens of thousands of women in the US to access safe abortion care.
Director Verónica Cruz Sánchez told us:
“We believe that the situation with abortion is going to get worse, if Trump is able to criminalize those who abort and those who accompany them. But we are willing to keep working to guarantee access to self-managed abortion. No one can stop this because it is the answer to the construction of abortion as a collective right.”
Across the US, and indeed the world, women and other marginalised communities help each other to find ways to end pregnancies safely – we always have, and we always will.
We’re proud to be able to continue funding safe abortion work.
On Monday we will be officially announcing a new global funding call for organisations working to improve access to abortion. We will be offering grants to those in low- and middle-income countries – a total of 140 countries are eligible to apply.
In the next few years, we are able to commit $18.5 million to abortion work. It is by no means enough to fix the funding crisis, but it goes a small way towards connecting and resourcing a powerful global movement of activists.
As a global fund solely dedicated to safe abortion, we’re here to proudly support those fighting for a better world.
By Laura Hurley, Communications Lead at SAAF