Global Gag

This Conference notes that on George Bush's first day in Office, he reimposed Ronald Reagan's 'Global Gag Rule' on women worldwide. This policy restricts organisations that receive US aid funds for family planning programmes from using their own non-US funds to provide legal abortion services, lobby their own Governments for abortion reform, or even provide accurate medical counselling or referrals regarding abortion. The effect of the Global Gag Rule has been devastating on women worldwide. Family planning services have lost all their US funding. This Conference notes that worldwide there are 19 million unsafe abortions every year and 78,000 women die every year from unsafe abortion. We believe that this statistic could be virtually eliminated by reform of law and the appropriate health information and services. Organisations that reject the Global Gag Rule are forced to turn away condoms and other contraceptives from the US, cut reproductive services and raise fees. This Conference therefore opposes the Global Gag Rule and calls on the Executive Council to campaign vigorously for its removal.