Global health charities warn of ‘huge and terrible’ threat to abortion rights if Trump returns
‘Global gag rule’ and funding cuts will be ‘on different scale’ if Republicans win again, family-planning providers say
Providers of women’s healthcare around the world are preparing for potentially disastrous consequences should Donald Trump win the US presidential election in November.
Policies pursued during Trump’s last presidency caused “devastating” harm in a number of countries, said Beth Schlachter, a senior director at MSI Reproductive Choices in the US. It meant “clinics shuttered, health teams closed, women dying … but a second Trump term will be on a different scale”.
Global health charities lost US funding if they refused to agree not to “perform or actively promote abortion” under the “global gag rule”. This frequently meant the closure of facilities offering wider health services, such as family planning.
Joe Biden scrapped the ban in 2021 a week after he was inaugurated as US president in a move celebrated by health groups around the world. However, rightwing US strategists have set out detailed plans in their Project 2025 roadmap for a Republican administration to change the way the US government operates immediately after a Trump victory.
