On January 22, 2001, the 28th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, President George W. Bush re-imposed the Global Gag Rule. Linking the Global Gag Rule and Roe was a decisive signal that the President is determined to dismantle reproductive rights in the United States and overseas.

The Global Gag Rule means that in order to receive U.S. international family planning funds – money that provides desperately needed healthcare for low-income women – charitable groups in other countries must pledge not to use their own money to take part in democratic reform efforts regarding abortion laws. Even in countries where abortion is legal, health providers must pledge they will not counsel, refer for, or perform abortions – or even seek to reform laws to make abortion safer. The radical anti-abortion policy of this Administration is furthered by the discriminatory imposition of the gag: anti-choice groups are free to lobby to make abortion laws more punitive while receiving U.S. aid.

Hundreds of thousands of women die every year from illegal and unsafe abortions and from unsafe, unwanted pregnancies and childbirth. Yet, under the Global Gag Rule, it is now official U.S. policy that it is wrong for health providers to provide needed, legal abortion services, or to offer advice or information about abortion. The chilling effect on democracy, on abortion access, and on law reform is pervasive. In some countries, organizations will curtail provision of life-saving abortions or post-abortion care – which are technically permitted under the Global Gag Rule – for fear of jeopardizing U.S. aid. Going even further, some providers may even be reluctant to dispense emergency contraception because of the Global Gag Rule, even though this would also be allowed.

While the Global Gag Rule is generally understood to harm women overseas and foreign organizations, it also affects the constitutional rights of U.S.-based advocates like the Center for Reproductive Rights. Our goal is to reform reproductive health laws, including abortion laws, to accord with universal human rights principles. We cannot fulfill our mission, however, unless foreign advocates – our partners – are able to speak openly about the ramifications of the laws, and unless we are able to form coalitions with organizations committed to democratic law reform. By telling our key partners, clients, and witnesses that they must either submit to the gag or lose desperately needed dollars, the U.S. government is taking away our ability to act effectively on behalf of women worldwide.

As a direct result of the Global Gag Rule’s censorship, Center for Reproductive Rights attorneys are being stifled in their efforts to uncover and expose human rights abuses in this field, and to promote democratic law reform. The Global Gag Rule restricts Center for Reproductive Rights attorneys from exercising their right to free speech and association, and the right to practice law. And, as a result, the Center for Reproductive Rights is censored in its efforts to secure the health and well being, and even the lives, of women, families, and communities.

Janet Benshoof is the president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, a legal advocacy organization with domestic and international programs dedicated to promoting women’s reproductive rights through litigation, research, policy analysis, and public education.