Go to Content Go to Navigation Go to Navigation Go to Site Search Homepage

Today, on the heels of International Women’s Day, Senator Barbara Boxer reintroduced a bill that would end a harmful, 30-year-old policy that has played politics with women’s health and lives around the world.

The Global Democracy Promotion Act (GDPA) would permanently repeal the global gag rule. When in place, the gag rule interferes with the doctor-patient relationship, limits free speech, and impedes women’s access to health services — including safe, legal abortion. It does this by prohibiting foreign organizations that receive U.S. international family planning funds from:

  • providing information, referrals, or services for legal abortion; or
  • advocating for the legalization of abortion in their own country.

These restrictions are so far reaching that they apply even if the foreign organization receiving U.S. family planning funds for other activities uses its own, non-U.S. funding to support these activities.

Watch Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, explain the impact of this harmful policy:

About the Global Gag Rule and the GDPA

The global gag rule is not currently in effect, but every year opponents of women’s health make numerous attempts to reinstate it. It also hurts women’s health around the world by causing uncertainty and confusion about what kinds of activities are legal and when.

The GDPA would change all that. It would block a future president from reinstating the global gag rule. By preventing politics from interfering with women’s health, it would benefit women and families around the world.

What You Can Do

As the world’s largest bilateral family planning donor, the United States should build on progress for women around the world — not stand in its way.  Let’s make our voices heard in support of this bill! Call on your congressional delegation to co-sponsor the GDPA and demonstrate their support for women worldwide.

Tags: Global, Global Gag Rule

Is Abortion Still Legal in My State?

Learn about abortion access changes in your state.

Get the Facts

Tell Our Courts: Save Mifepristone!

We should be able to trust our courts to respect science and follow the law. It's time for our leaders to hear us, loud and clear: The attack on mifepristone is a gross injustice that could harm millions of people.

Speak Out Now

Planned Parenthood Action Fund Will NEVER Back Down

Know this: our right to abortion is not debatable. We will rebuild and reclaim the freedom that is ours.

Donate

Sign Up for Email

Sign Up

Explore more on

We and our third partners use cookies and other tools to collect, store, monitor, and analyze information about your interaction with our site to improve performance, analyze your use of our sites and assist in our marketing efforts. You may opt out of the use of these cookies and other tools at any time by visiting Cookie Settings. By clicking “Allow All Cookies” you consent to our collection and use of such data, and our Terms of Use. For more information, see our Privacy Notice.

Cookie Settings

We, and our third-party partners, use cookies, pixels, and other tracking technologies to collect, store, monitor, and process certain information about you when you access and use our services, read our emails, or otherwise engage with us. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences, or your device. We use that information to make the site work, analyze performance and traffic on our website, to provide a more personalized web experience, and assist in our marketing efforts. We also share information with our social media, advertising, and analytics partners. You can change your default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our Necessary Cookies as they are deployed to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information, please see our Privacy Notice.

Marketing

On

We use online advertising to promote our mission and help constituents find our services. Marketing pixels help us measure the success of our campaigns.

User Feedback and Session Replay

On

We use qualitative data from LogRocket, UserZoom, Hotjar and AB Tasty to learn about your user experience and improve our products and services. LogRocket allows us to view session replays.