Six months after the election of business tycoon Donald Trump as the US president, some of his policies, which will steer America into greatness, still came as a surprise and have raised many eyebrows. Just as recent, another shocking announcement was made by the administration as Trump expands funding ban for overseas aid that supports and promote abortion as part of family planning.
In an announcement made on Monday, Trump clearly does not want American taxes to pay for abortion as he signed a new policy increasing the scope banning the financial aid of United States to countries that serve as providers of international healthcare. As the US president expands funding ban for overseas aid, about $8.8 billion will be affected in terms of funding of global health. Back in the President George W. Bush-era, it the ban was only amounting to $600 million, according to a news from the New York Times.
Based on NBC, the broadened policy is not scrapping overall financial support for groups who advocate international health care and the US is still willing to extend hands only to organizations who agree with the terms. The new Global Gag Rule, where the US president expands funding ban for overseas aid, states that any non-government organizations that wish to acquire US funds for their health advocacies should refrain from promoting abortion as a method of family planning.
It was not the first time that a US president expands funding ban for overseas aid as former Republican president Ronald Reagan also approved the same policy during his tenure, blocking the US' financial support to NGO's that promote abortion in their family planning programs. In 2009, former president Barack Obama scrapped the policy. It was believed that these changes in the anti-abortion policy will negatively affect hundreds of clinics around the world advocating fights against AIDS and malaria.