Trump Changing Abortion Policy Surrounded By Men Is Abhorrent, But It’s No Surprise

This weekend millions of people around the world took to the streets to protest the incoming Trump administration. It was an inspiring display of fortitude; though most marches were centred around women, they gained support and stood in solidarity with issues related to people of all genders, ethnicities and sexuality.

Now, we have our first solid evidence on why that kind of continued opposition is going to be so crucial going forward.

In one of his first acts as president, Donald Trump has signed an executive order reinstating a global gag rule on funding for NGOs related to abortion. Any non-governmental group that performs abortions (or even discusses it) will no longer receive any foreign aid or federal funding. It’s a move which directly jeopardises women’s health. With support cut (and organisations consequently pressured to stop their work in this area), people around the world will have greatly reduced access to safe terminations. Health professionals warn this will lead to many resorting to dangerous methods; unsafe abortions are currently the cause of 13 percent of maternal deaths. It also directly jeopardises the vast array of important work (unrelated to abortion) being done by these organisations.

To add insult to injury, Trump signed this order while surrounded by half a dozen middle-aged white men — people who have decidedly never had to think about what they might resort to if something was growing inside their uteruses against their will.

No one respects women like Donald Trump, who signed an anti-abortion executive order today surrounded by nothing but men. pic.twitter.com/eSFfzZ9OiS

— shauna (@goldengateblond) January 23, 2017

As I watch 4 white men delight in taking away a woman's right to choose, i think about how there's no difference between Hillary and Trump. pic.twitter.com/SuowniL9oC

— Desi (@DesiJed) January 23, 2017

Here’s the exclusive footage of the debate beforehand:

While this is repulsive, it shouldn’t come as a shock for a number of reasons. Firstly, Trump’s administration has always been fiercely anti-choice. Vice President Mike Pence has fought for over a decade to defund Planned Parenthood and champions laws which mandate people have funerals for foetal tissue. Trump has also made clear he is anti-choice and, at one point said there should be “some sort of punishment” for those who have the procedure.

Secondly, this legislation isn’t even new. In the US, the global gag order dates back to Reagan. Though there have been consistent restrictions on federal funding for abortion since 1977, Reagan introduced these further restrictions in 1984 (what a good, not-at-all ominous year!) to block billions of dollars in funding for anyone who even tangentially supported a woman’s right to choose. Bill Clinton then repealed it once he entered office, then George W. Bush reinstated it, then Barack Obama repealed it once again, and on it goes…

The policy also has a history in Australia. A similar measure was introduced by John Howard in 1996, whereby the government withdrew foreign aid that was used to fund safe abortions in poorer countries. After continued campaigning from politicians in the Labor, Liberal and Greens parties, the Rudd Government eventually got rid of the ban in 2009.

As Rudd had previously enjoyed considerable support from the Australian Christian Lobby, he faced a lot of conservative pushback over the move. It was, however, celebrated more broadly as a win for women’s rights. The then-head of the Australian Reproductive Health Alliance described the decision as “humane and enlightened”.

In her 2013 election campaign, Julia Gillard famously referenced this kind of back and forth from her predecessors saying “women [were], once again, banished from the centre of Australia’s political life”. “We don’t want to live in an Australia where abortion again becomes the political plaything of men who think they know better.”

Cool to know how far we’ve all come.