Let’s talk about the gag rule.
The National Coalition Against Censorship reminds us that we had this fight before.
The gag rule (also known as the “Mexico City” policy) was originally announced by the Reagan administration at the 1984 United Nations International Conference on Population in Mexico City.
It went further than the previous measures by restricting NGOs relying on funds from the U.S. Agency on International Development from using their own funds to provide abortions. The organizations also were not eligible if they lobbied to make or keep abortion legal in their own country or if they provided abortion referrals.
Trump’s playbook is a continuation and expansion of this policy. With the original rule older than many women of childbearing age, it’s a fair guess that many don’t remember this. But we do. But there’s a critical difference – where before our government was trying to control the rest of the world, now they’ve also turned their gaze inward, meaning to end legal abortion everywhere, including in every state, county, and town in the United States.
If the gag rule becomes law, this conversation, our very essential first amendment rights to free speech, will be immensely constrained if not outright prohibited.