Abortion

‘One Nation Under Gag’—Rewire.News Exclusive Comic

Indivisible with inequality and poor health care for all.

[Photo: A comic of Mike Pence sitting at an
Chris Monday / Rewire.News

President Trump’s proposed “domestic gag rule” has a long history. Since 1984, the Mexico City policy (commonly known as the global gag rule) has banned foreign nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) from performing or “actively promoting” abortion using U.S. family planning aid or, more recently, most other U.S. health funding. The U.S. policy also forbids NGOs that receive U.S. funding from accepting funds from others—other countries or organizations—to perform or even discuss abortion. While the global gag rule has been reinstated and lifted over and over again as administrations change, critics have remained firm in decrying its impact. It isolates abortion from other health care, chills discussion of abortion, and draws a firm, discriminatory dividing line between residents of other countries and the United States, among other effects.

The president, however, has upped the ante. After expanding the reach of the global gag rule, he’s extending a similar rule to the United States. This suggested domestic gag rule removes the requirement that any U.S. clinic that receives Title X federal funding must provide counseling and referrals for all pregnancy options.

Trump’s proposed policy is an all-out attack on health care, undermining providers’ relationship with their patients, allowing the withholding of vital information and referrals, and denying access to potentially life-saving services for women and families.

Artist Chris Monday responds in a new comic, exclusively for Rewire.News.