IDSA’s “Science Speaks”: State Department Global Gag Rule ‘review’ focuses on training, compliance measures
Antigone Barton, senior editor and writer of “Science Speaks,” discusses the release of the U.S. Department of State’s first review of the Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance policy, also known as the Mexico City policy. Barton writes, “The report refers to ‘internal and external feedback,’ focus groups with in-country programs, calls and meetings with agency staff and affected partners, and written feedback from 31 ‘stakeholder groups,’ but provides just one direct quote from all feedback, [in which] the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops called the restriction ‘one of the most significant policy initiatives on abortion ever taken by the United States in an area of foreign assistance'” (2/8).