Reuters: As Trump rewrites public health rules, Pence sees conservative agenda born again
“In a sweeping social policy shift, the Trump administration is seeking to remake health rules at home and abroad for women, gay and transgender people, restricting access to abortion, curtailing support for contraception, and narrowing the scope of civil rights in health care. The turnaround has its foundations in the quiet, behind-the-scenes influence of Vice President Mike Pence, who has been driven throughout his political career by his evangelical Christian beliefs… [One] focus has been the Mexico City policy involving U.S. [global health] aid to [foreign] non-government[al] groups. ‘It’s unfortunate enough that we continue to fund Planned Parenthood here in the U.S.; we don’t need to export a pro-abortion ideology overseas,’ Pence said at a House hearing in 2007. Now, under the expanded Mexico City rule Pence advocated, some groups have refused U.S. funding… At the United Nations and World Health Organization, U.S. representatives appointed under Trump-Pence have worked to pull references to ‘gender’ and ‘sexual and reproductive health’ from international rights documents…” (Abutaleb/Tanfani, 5/30).