Doctors Without Borders/Medium: Is the Global Gag Rule Truly Pro-Life?
Aerlyn Pfeil, midwife and a member of the Médecins Sans Frontières-USA board of directors, discusses the potential impacts of the Mexico City policy on women’s health worldwide, writing, “The [global gag rule] is not saving lives; it plays politics with women’s lives. … The truth is that defunding organizations that provide safe, informed reproductive health services increases the risk of a life lost. Denying a woman access to health care puts her life and the lives of the children she feeds at risk. … If we want women and girls around the world to have healthy, meaningful lives, they must be given opportunities for safe, complete, and informed reproductive health care. They must not be used as political pawns” (3/8).