Eight countries will raise a global fund to plug the financial shortfall caused by United States President Donald Trump’s ban on federal money for NGOs that perform abortions or provide information on the practice. This executive order, which Trump signed on January 24, is likely to cause a funding deficit of $600 million (approximately Rs 3,991 crore) in the next four years, reported Reuters.
Netherlands had announced the launch of this corpus in January. Now, Belgium, Canada, Cape Verde, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg and Sweden have also joined in, Sweden’s Deputy Prime Minister Isabella Lövin (pictured above) told Reuters.
These eight nations will hold their first conference in Brussels on March 2. “[The order] could be so dangerous for so many women...If women don’t have control over their bodies and their own fate, it can have very serious consequences for global goals of gender rights and global poverty eradication,” Lövin said.
Sweden’s deputy prime minister was earlier in news for appearing to mock Trump for sharing a photograph of herself signing a legislation surrounded by an all-woman team. This was after a photograph of Trump flanked by men when he had signed the order went viral. The move had barred NGOs from receiving funding if they supported abortions.
The ban is likely to affect women in parts of the world where NGOs have trained staff and provide information on abortions and contraceptives. The US is the world’s largest donor towards global health and spends around $3 billion on worldwide healthcare through just its US Agency for International Development, besides others. The International Planned Parenthood Federation said that because of the rule, they could lose around $100 million (around Rs 665 crore) that the US provides them.
Trump had reiterated his stand against abortion on multiple occasions during his campaign leading to the presidential elections. In his final debate with Democrat Hillary Clinton, the US president had referred to the procedure as “ripping the baby out of the womb” days before birth. Activists had said his description was more apt for a caesarean section than an abortion.
The anti-abortion order has been revoked and reinstituted by various Republican and Democratic presidents several times since 1985, when it had first come into effect. Former US president Barack Obama had revoked the ban in 2009, after his predecessor and Republican George W Bush had reinstituted the rule in 2001.
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