The Hill: 2018 will be a rough year for reproductive rights
Robert Walker, president of the Population Institute

“…The Trump administration knows what it is doing: everything possible to deny women and teenage girls access to modern methods of contraception, regardless of where they live. Last year, the administration terminated funding for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), a major provider of family planning and maternal health services in developing nations. Also by executive action, it re-imposed and expanded the scope of the ‘global gag rule,’ which denies U.S. funding for overseas providers of global health services, if they ‘advocate’ for or provide counseling on abortion services. Last year in his proposed budget, President Trump called for the elimination of all bilateral assistance for international family planning assistance, a proposal rejected by Congress. Only mildly deterred, the Trump administration’s latest proposed budget seeks to slash international funding by 50 percent in 2019. … Amnesty International’s latest annual human rights report, released [in late February], calls out the U.S. for abridging reproductive rights in 2017. It sharply criticizes the Trump administration’s ‘broad and multifaceted’ attacks on women and girls, and what it calls ‘particularly virulent’ attacks and ‘extreme restrictions’ on sexual and reproductive health care. The worst, however, may be yet to come” (3/2).