Trump’s Second Term & International Reproductive Rights
The 2024 United States presidential election raised a key debate for the country: reproductive rights and access to abortion.
In 2022, President Donald Trump claimed “I was able to kill Roe v. Wade.” Roe v. Wade was a Supreme Court ruling that enshrined the Constitutional right to abortion—its repeal resulted in constricted access to abortion in many states across the U.S. and sparked national debate over reproductive rights. Hundreds of thousands protested against the overturn of the decision, but just as many people supported its downfall. While Roe v. Wade and the implications of its repeal are extensively deliberated in the U.S., its arguably significant impact on the international scale is often sidelined.
The repeal of Roe v. Wade caused waves of increased anti-abortion movements across the globe and was able to establish a new precedent for anti-abortion laws. Anti-abortion groups were emboldened and invigorated to push for more bans on abortion. In Kenya, for example, there have been cases brought to the Kenyan courts advocating for abortion bans (despite abortion access being already extremely limited and ambiguous under the Kenyan constitution). ‘Pro-life,’ or anti-abortion arguments in foreign countries are often inspired by those used in the U.S.—an unborn child’s right to life being one shared argument of many. Another incident of Roe v. Wade’s reversal acting as foreign justification is Uganda criminalizing same-sex relations, citing the constitutional interpretation employed by the U.S. in the repeal of Wade as grounds for its own.
The repeal of Roe v. Wade was a monumental moment in the reproductive rights debate, but U.S. policy surrounding reproductive freedoms and its effects at the global level have been an issue in the U.S. for far longer. In 1984, President Ronald Reagan established the “Mexico City policy,” often referred to by its critics as “the global gag rule.” It called for the U.S. to cut off financial support to foreign nonprofits (or, non-governmental organizations, NGOs) that support abortion as a method of family planning—whether this be in the way of informing people about abortion procedures, referring patients, or providing abortions. Trump renewed the policy in January of 2017 and expanded its scope, barring support for more global health initiatives such as HIV prevention and treatment. Many NGOs that received financial support from the U.S. declared this policy to be unethical and have forfeited millions of dollars, forcing cuts to their programs. Donor funding from international organizations is essential in many countries, such as Nepal, where many women are dependent on charity organizations for family planning. In Nepal (and elsewhere), decrease in support from nonprofit programs will lead to more women turning to unsafe abortions, thus increasing maternal mortality rates. While Trump’s expanded policy has since been rescinded by the Biden Administration, Trump’s upcoming second term raises the question if he will institute another ban on funding these crucial NGOs.
Considering the effects the first Trump Administration had on the national and international fight for reproductive rights, tensions are high as the world watches the U.S. reproductive rights debate continue to unfold with Trump’s looming second term.
The Roar 