By Kylie Cheung | Politics | March 3, 2017 |
By Kylie Cheung | Politics | March 3, 2017 |
Just days into his presidency, Trump took it upon himself to sign an executive order barring all funding from any global organization that so much as offered information about abortion. The gag rule, known as the “Mexico City” policy first instated by President Reagan and repealed by President Obama, essentially censors all organizations from educating young women about their options for healthcare, jeopardizing their lives to advance a political agenda.
At any rate, fortunately, countries around the world put their foot down and called bullshit on the law, organizing a global initiative to “raise millions of dollars to replace shortfalls left by U.S. President Donald Trump’s ban on U.S.-funded groups worldwide providing information on abortion.”
And since said global initiative was introduced at the end of January, it’s already raised $200 million.
As per USA Today:
“Representatives for more than 45 governments attended ‘She Decides,’ an international conference that was hastily organized in Brussels by Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden to fill the gap.The organizers said that total pledges from countries and organizations reached 181 million euros, or $190 million, with Sweden and Finland pledging around $21 million each.”
And in the words of Belgian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, the conference’s host, women and girls across the world shouldn’t be pushed “into the dark Ages” by the “purely ideological decision of one country.”