ABORTION/BUDGET/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Nearly half of the estimated 56 million abortions performed worldwide every year are unsafe and women in poor countries face even higher risks due to U.S. funding cuts to family planning programs abroad, health experts said on Thursday [9-28-17].
U.S. President Donald Trump has reinstated a policy that requires foreign NGOs that receive U.S. global family planning funds to certify that they do not perform abortions or provide abortion advice as a method of family planning.
Worldwide, 25 million unsafe abortions occurred every year between 2010 and 2014, according to a report by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Guttmacher Institute. Some 97 percent of those are in Africa, Asia and Latin America…
Uruguay, Nepal and Ethiopia have made safe abortion accessible in recent years, she added. Ireland plans to hold a referendum next May or June on whether it should loosen some of the world’s strictest abortion laws, Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said on Tuesday.
Around 88 percent of abortions occur in developing countries, where contraception is often lacking, said Dr. Gilda Sedgh, principal research scientist at the Guttmacher Institute, speaking from New York.
Sedgh, asked about the impact of Trump’s executive order, said it bans U.S. health assistance to foreign NGOs if they provide abortion services, counseling or referrals, ‘even if they use non-U.S. funds for those activities’…
But a more limited so-called ‘gag rule’ was imposed by previous Republican administrations, Sedgh said. Studies indicated that in sub-Saharan Africa this had led to an increase in abortions after clinics were forced to close.”
-Stephanie Nebehay, “WHO reports 25 million unsafe abortions a year; expert sees higher risk from U.S. cutbacks,” Reuters, Sept. 27, 2017 03:44pm