Katherine Zappone: Welcoming positive change in US foreign policy
Joe Biden listens as Kamala Harris speaks during an event in Wilmington, Delaware, last week. Both have strong track records on equality, says Zappone. Picture: Susan Walsh/AP
One of many reasons to welcome Donald Trump’s departure from the White House is that a deeply damaging and harmful piece of foreign policy is expected to exit with him.
The so-called ‘Global Gag Rule’, a policy which prohibits US aid to foreign nongovernmental organisations who refer to or advocate abortion services, has cost the lives of tens of thousands of women and girls in the poorer regions of the world during the past four years.
This ill-conceived funding ban has been a hallmark of Republican presidents since Ronald Reagan first introduced it in 1986.
Depending on the political allegiances of the occupant of the Oval Office, it has been introduced, repealed and then reintroduced ever since.
Newly inaugurated Trump wasted no time, not only making the gag official but expanding its damaging impact just days after millions of American women took to the streets in American cities from coast to coast to protest his then-fledgeling presidency.
His blanket action has impacted on all US global health funding ever since, totalling an unprecedented $8.8bn (€7.2bn).
As Ireland’s special envoy for the successful bid for a seat at the United Nation’s Security Council, I have heard about and seen first-hand the devastation caused.
Meeting campaigners in townships, listening to Namibian schoolgirls, or attending the Irish Aid-supported International Conference on Population and Development in Addis Ababa, the evidence presented to us was always the same.
Those on the frontline of ensuring the health and wellbeing of some of the most vulnerable women and girls in the world have been left facing the starkest of decisions: save lives or leave women and girls in immediate danger in order to safeguard US funding for other vital services.
At its cruellest, this draconian measure intended to win the support of hard-line American conservatives, leaves frontline workers having to value some lives more than others.
The most alarming part of the Gag is its absolute and indiscriminate character.
Organisations see funding cut for all their lifeline projects such as anti-pandemic work, maternal and child health services, sex education as well as ensuring the most basic of rights access to water, if they also provide referrals on where to access information, support or counselling for abortion.
This has seen some of the most effective agencies largely scale back their life-saving work on the ground in communities.
Then there is the reality that the Gag simply does not work.
The impact has been to increase the number of unsafe, illegal or backroom abortions. The figures are staggering.
Marie Stopes International believes that there have been 6.5m unintended pregnancies, 2.1m unsafe abortions and 21,700 maternal deaths since 2017.
The world is re-adjusting and preparing for the Joe Biden era.
The strongest signal of change the new administration could send to the poorest communities on the planet is to quickly end this measure and the danger that it has visited on millions of women and girls.
However, the world will also be looking for more.
The international community will be anxious to see if the United States will be rejoining Ireland and other nations in contributing to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA).
An important plank of Irish overseas development aid, the fund commits nations to intensify work on ending maternal and infant mortality, promoting universal access to maternal and reproductive health care, promoting HIV/Aids prevention strategies, and ending gender-based violence.
We have seen the positive signals from the incoming administration on Brexit and the Good Friday Agreement, but a White House which shows leadership on women’s issues could see our shared foreign policies broaden and both our countries co-operating on a more global scale.
Our own international development policy ‘A Better World’ prioritises gender and equality.
As we campaigned for support for a Security Council Seat our team, led by our ambassador at the United Nations Geraldine Byrne Nason, also highlighted that genuinely universal health care must embrace all services including those related to sexual and reproductive health as set out in the sustainable development goals.
As a country, Ireland has taken vital steps to ensure that such services are available, are of good quality, are accessible to all women and girls throughout their lives, free of stigma, discrimination, coercion, and violence.
Reproductive healthcare has been identified as a basic human right and should never be seen as a matter of political discretion.
We should all be proud that in recent years, unlike the United States, Ireland is viewed as progressive and a leader in this area — as reflected in the support garnered for the Security Council bid.
As a dual citizen, I was proud to campaign to elect Joe Biden and his vice president-elect Kamala Harris. Both have strong track records on equality.
The introduction of the [1994] Violence Against Women Act was a signature issue for the incoming president-elect.
While as a San Francisco district attorney and attorney general of California, Kamala Harris has been the strongest of advocates on equality.
Like many supporters, I look forward to an administration that will once again see the US taking a more global approach.
A country which is happy to take its place on the world stage and does not take dangerous international actions and stances in order to appease those who hold extreme views at home.
We can but hope that in 2021, the policies supported and promoted through our aid programme and our diplomats across the globe will be supported by the most powerful ally of them all, the United States of America.
- Katherine Zappone is a former minister for children, and was government special envoy for Ireland’s successful bid for a 2021 UN Security Council Seat, and as a dual citizen is a life-long member
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