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That’s actually been illegal since 1973.
President Donald Trump on Monday revived a rule that restricts what foreign organizations taking US aid money can do with their other money, from any other donors.
Under Trump's Mexico City policy, also called the “global gag rule,” any foreign organization accepting US global health assistance can't use money from other donors to talk to women about abortion, let alone give one. Experts say this is going to have pretty terrible consequences for women, and it's likely to increase the number of abortions around the world.
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Pretty quickly, though, a falsehood took hold. People thought that before the Trump policy, US aid money was paying for abortions in foreign countries.
Even Sean Spicer, the new White House press secretary, thought this. “The president issued a memorandum reestablishing the Mexico City policy, stating that the United States will end the use of taxpayer dollars to fund abortions,” he said in his first official press briefing on Monday.
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That’s just not true. US foreign aid has two kinds of abortion-related restrictions on it. One is the global gag rule, which was first signed by Ronald Reagan in 1984.
It's an executive order, not a law, and that means that each president can choose to follow it or not. Reagan's gag rule stayed in place under his successor, George H.W. Bush, until Bill Clinton took office. Clinton repealed it. Then George W. Bush put it back. Then Barack Obama repealed it. And yesterday, Trump put it back.
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The other restriction is the Helms Amendment, which is a US law. It’s been around since 1973.
The Helms Amendment prohibits US foreign aid from being used to provide abortions, or to persuade women to get abortions, as a method of family planning. In practice, this policy is a steadfast no-abortion policy — with no exceptions, not even for rape, incest or when the mother's life is in danger.
The amendment was passed in 1973, the same year that the US Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade made abortion legal in the United States. The amendment has been law ever since.
But — and don't get confused here —Congress also renews it every year. Even if they didn't, the law would still stand. Then why renew it every year? “Posturing,” Brian Dixon, executive director of the Population Action Connection Fund (PACF), an organization that has been working on repealing the Helms Amendment, told BuzzFeed News.
Activists have been arguing that the language of the Helms Amendment should actually allows abortion services for rape survivors, because the amendment prohibits only “abortion as a method of family planning.” Activists say abortions after rape, or when a pregnant woman's life is in danger, cannot be considered family planning.
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