Nicole Forlan – Global Reproductive Health at Duke

Ethiopian health clinics supporting teenagers have been shut down. Decades worth of HIV care integration and family planning progress have completely unraveled in Kenya (Henderson, 2020). The duties of government workers dedicated to traveling the Himalayas to share health related information have been stopped (Henderson, 2020). These are some of the effects from the implementation of President Trump’s 2017 global aid policy, “Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance.” The “Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance,” also referred to as the “The Global Gag Rule,” has made lasting impacts under the Trump administration (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2020). This policy requires non-governmental organizations to refrain from using funds from U.S. and non-U.S. sources to promote or provide abortion care as a form of family planning (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2020). This policy is an extension of the Mexico City Policy which was first announced in 1984 at an international conference under President Reagan's administration and the policy has been in and out of effect...

Maternal health and reproductive care were already facing known disparities before COVID-19 made its impact on the world. In 2017, more than 800 women in the world died daily from preventable pregnancy and childbirth related causes across the world (Witter, 2020). Also, at that point in time, 10 million girls ages 15-19 were experiencing unplanned pregnancies every year (Witter, 2020). So, it is to be expected that when the world faces a pandemic that causes an incline in challenges to accessing resources, that poorer health outcomes are going to be experienced amongst this same threatened group (Witter, 2020). During a health crisis, funds are reallocated and shifted to different resources (Witter, 2020), thus having a monumental impact on an already vulnerable population. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sana Frontiérs partnered with governments around the world in an attempt to prioritize reproductive services as essential during the COVID-19 pandemic (Kuehn, 2020). The cutbacks in maternal health funds alone has the potential to lead to 113,000...

Abortion Rights, Global Aid, & COVID-19: How Do They all Tie Together?

Reproductive Health During COVID-19