President’s move to end ‘abortion ban’ on overseas funding hailed – now aid groups want apology for harmful Trump policies
Health groups around the world are celebrating the end of a harmful policy banning US funding for overseas aid organisations that facilitate or promote abortion, which was scrapped by the US president, Joe Biden, in a presidential memorandum on Thursday.
Reproductive rights advocates are urging the new administration to now go further and permanently repeal the Mexico City policy – known as the “global gag rule” – to prevent it being reinstated by a future Republican president. The policy has been blamed for contributing to thousands of maternal deaths in the developing world over the past four years.
Related: ‘We’re going to save lives’: aid groups look to end of Trump’s ‘global gag rule’