Los Angeles Times: No, Pompeo, a global gag rule doesn’t protect ‘the least amongst us.’ It hurts the poor
Carla Hall, editorial board member for the Los Angeles Times

“It’s astonishing that Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo, who announced an expansion of the so-called global gag rule that prevents U.S. [global health] aid from going to foreign health care providers if they also provide or offer guidance on abortions, said his administration ‘protects the least amongst us.’ That’s absolutely the reverse of what this administration is doing overseas (and at home) when it gives providers of desperately needed health care a Hobson’s choice: either stop performing abortions and abortion counseling, or stop receiving vital U.S. aid. And, by the way, none of these organizations is using U.S. aid money to fund abortions. That is already against the law. The global gag rule (also known as the ‘Mexico City policy’) is an attempt to control what providers do with their other funds. The further expansion of the gag rule stops [foreign] nongovernmental organizations that receive foreign aid [for global health] from funding [with non-U.S. money] other groups that provide or offer counsel on abortion…” (3/26).