Breaking News: Congress Kills Effort to Permanently Repeal the Global Gag Rule

Sucky news out of DC this morning: A provision in the Senate State Foreign Operations bill that would have permanently repealed the global gag rule (GGR) was removed.
In January of this year, just days after being inaugurated into office, Obama signed an executive order to overturn the GGR, and we all breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, someone who understands that family planning funds should go to the organizations best qualified and stationed to provide basic health care needs. Period.
But the fight didn’t end there (it never seems to, does it?!). As many of us know, the fate of this bogus policy has historically been subject to the ideology of the party in power: Reagan first imposed the order in 1984, but Clinton reversed it when he took office, only to have Bush reinstate it on the 28th anniversary of Roe v. Wade in his very first executive order. So even though Obama repealed it again, in his first few days in office, the policy could still be put into effect at any time if an anti-choice President so desired.
The provision in the Senate State Foreign Operations bill could have changed all that. Today, Congress had a chance to permanently repeal the GGR, instead of leaving it up to the whim of tomorrow’s politician- but they chose faulty ideology and political maneuvering over the health of women worldwide yet again, which is so unfortunate, because the GGR has horrific consequences for foreign family planning NGOs- restricting their ability to offer honest, comprehensive health care to some of the most vulnerable and in-need populations in the world.
Click here to write your representative and let he/she know what you think of this.