The Global Gag Rule, from the Perspective of the Women’s Movement in Peru
U.S. Foreign Policy at the United Nations
U.S. Support for Reproductive Rights Abroad
Treaty for the Rights of Women (CEDAW)
Myths and Realities: Debunking USAID’s Analysis of the Global Gag Rule
The Global Gag Rule: Current Information
GGR Expansions Endanger Women's Lives
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Foreign Policy Priority Issues

Defending Reproductive Freedom on the Hill

The Center for Reproductive Rights promotes and ensures reproductive rights for all individuals both domestically and worldwide through our legislative and policy efforts. The issues listed to the left are the focus of our foreign policy work in Washington, D.C.

Learn more about the Center's Federal Legislative Priority Issues

The legal, policy and communications experts of the Center's Federal Program are currently engaged in research, policy analysis and public education on issues related to foreign policy as it affects reproductive freedom. See below for examples of some of the foreign policy issues we are currently working on:

The "global gag rule" is a policy that President Bush reinstated his first day in office which prohibits foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that receive U.S. family planning funds from using their own funds to provide abortion services, referrals, counseling, or from advocating to change restrictive abortion laws in their countries. One of the ways the Center for Reproductive Rights works to repeal the global gag rule is by advocating for the passage of the "Global Democracy Promotion Act" which repeals this restrictive ban.

In yet another diasappointing development in the ongoing effort to end the damage to women's lives worldwide caused by the global gag rule, anti-choice members of Congress have removed a provision from the annual Foreign Operations Appropriations Act that would have repealed the Bush Administration policy. The repeal came in the form of an amendment offered by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) which was passed by the Senate on July 9, 2003 in a vote of 53-43. The House version of the appropriations act did not have a similar provision and anti-choice lawmakers stripped the amendment from the bill during conference committee negotiations on November 20, 2003. Learn More >>>

Read the Center's report: Breaking the Silence: The Global Gag Rule’s Impact on Unsafe Abortion

The Center for Reproductive Rights seeks to ensure that the United States rigorously protects and promotes reproductive health and rights in its foreign policy. Thirty years ago the U.S. assumed a leadership role in the international effort to expand access to voluntary family planning and related health services. However, the U.S. has fallen short in its leadership in this crucial area of foreign policy. The greatest impediment is the anti-choice/anti-family planning ideology of some conservatives in Congress and in the current Bush Administration. For more information on the dangerous trend by the U.S. to dictate policies at international conferences that threaten reproductive health and freedom for women and adolescents around the world see U.S. foreign policy at the UN.