Hello friend,
The leaves are changing, the temperatures are dropping, and signs of spooky season are popping up on people’s porches. As we pull out our sweaters and set up our Halloween decorations, the Trump administration continues its scare campaign against global reproductive health.
For the last several months, rumors have been swirling about an expansion of the hideous Global Gag Rule, which will target “gender ideology” and DEI programs. Recent reporting suggests that this expanded policy will apply to all non-military foreign aid spending—including to governments, multilateral agencies such as UN agencies, and US NGOs, which have previously not been targeted by the policy.
The Global Gag Rule is a terrible policy that has long denied crucial care to women and girls. It should be ended forever, not expanded. While the Trump administration plots this next move, $10 million worth of contraceptives continues to sit, unused, in a Belgian warehouse. This contraception could be going to millions of people facing an unmet need for contraception, preventing unintended pregnancy and saving lives. Instead, because of an unbridled campaign to eradicate birth control, these supplies sit, locked away, while people who could be helped by them continue to suffer.
And because the administration is intent on inflicting suffering on the American people, too, on Friday, October 10, the Department of Health and Human Services fired nearly everyone in the agency’s Office of Population Affairs, which administers the Title X program that provides birth control services to millions of low-income people across the country. While the firings were temporarily blocked by a federal judge five days later, on October 15, the future is very tenuous for the U.S. federal family planning program.
The news is heavy, but here at Population Connection Action Fund, we are working hard to get the next phase of the #Fight4HER campaign underway in cities across the country. If you live in Las Vegas, Manchester, Raleigh-Durham, or Tucson, keep your eyes peeled for opportunities to volunteer on the ground in the new year. If you don’t live in one of those four cities, keep an eye out for opportunities to plug in virtually as our campaign gets off the ground.
