The Lancet Global Health: Trump’s “global gag rule”: implications for human rights and global health
Jerome A. Singh, head of ethics and law at the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA) and adjunct professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health Sciences and the Joint Centre for Bioethics at the University of Toronto, and Salim S. Abdool Karim, director of CAPRISA and professor at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University

“The USA has engaged in international health activities for more than a century. … Given this proud history, it is deeply concerning that newly elected President Donald J. Trump, has, through an executive order in his fourth day in office, reinstated a Reagan-era prohibition on the disbursement of federal funding to [foreign] non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and agencies that provide, promote, or make referrals to abortion services, or give information about abortions. … [T]he version of this policy that President Trump reinstated will apply not only to recipients of family planning funding, but also to recipients of all global health assistance furnished by all U.S. government departments or agencies. The implications are profound. U.S. federal-funded [foreign] NGOs and agencies focusing on diseases such as Zika virus, Ebola virus, tuberculosis, and AIDS but also providing family planning-related services that even so much as mention abortion, could now be barred from receiving U.S. federal funds. This executive order could have great human rights and ethics implications. South Africa is an example of a country that stands to be adversely affected. … Compliance with Trump’s order will potentially require clinicians in NGOs and international agencies that operate in South Africa and receive U.S. federal funding to violate their professional codes of ethics, the country’s abortion laws, and the country’s bill of rights. … Seen in this light and the scale of US federal funding for global health initiatives, the Trump administration’s expanded ambit of the Mexico City Policy is a direct threat to global health…” (April 2017).

The Guardian: How women’s health advocates can win in 2017
Ruth Landy, consultant and advocate for women’s and children’s health and nutrition

“…The health of women and children are at risk in this shifting global environment, but how can advocates and newly enraged activists turn this crisis into opportunity? Research helps us to understand why some global health campaigns succeed while others fail. Progress in combating HIV/AIDS, advancing tobacco control, and reducing women’s deaths in pregnancy and childbirth, for example, would not have been possible without influential action. … Now that health is more political than ever and gender is central, reproductive health advocates can make the most of this as an opportunity to make headlines. … That requires powerful voices, independent accountability, making the business case, and sustained citizen engagement. Women Deliver is an inclusive platform to build on, alongside a revitalized Every Women, Every Child initiative. It’s also about politics — further sharpening political engagement, from high-level forums to NGOs and civil society movements. Leadership at all levels is critical. It will be the determining factor in advancing the Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health (2016-2030) in this new era…” (3/11).