PBS NewsHour: Impact of ‘global gag rule’ goes beyond abortion for these health groups in Kenya
“Special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro reports from Kenya on a policy governing foreign aid for health care services. … In a nearby tent, health workers offer contraception for anyone that requests it. … It’s all sponsored by Marie Stopes International, a British-based health care charity that works in 37 developing countries. … Marie Stopes had received about $30 million annually worldwide from the U.S. government to do its work, but all of that was cut last January when President Trump reinstated the so-called Mexico City rule, which its critics call the global gag rule. … But the Trump administration has gone much further, applying the rule to an organization’s entire U.S. [global health] aid grant, not just money for reproductive health care. … So far, Marie Stopes has been able to continue offering family planning services for free by getting some emergency funding from a coalition of European governments and organizations. That funding, however, will run out in mid-2018. Meanwhile, the impact of the new rule is already being felt by smaller groups, like Family Health Options of Kenya…” (Woodruff/de Sam Lazaro, 12/19).