Another popular misconception in the United States concerns the so-called “Gag Rule,” which President Clinton repealed but which President Bush reinstated immediately upon taking office. No surprise, right? Clinton was more friendly towards women’s rights in general; Bush is an outspoken foe of legal abortion.

But here’s the thing: The Global Gag Rule is not about refusing to pay for abortions abroad with U.S. money. The Helms Amendment already does that, has done since 1973. No, what the Global Gag Rule does, and why it’s called that, is, it denies U.S. funding to any facility that verbally acknowledges the existence of abortion at all.

And this is how it kills men, women, and babies.

You see, private and local funding for facilities in developing or impoverished nations is often not enough to keep them running. U.S. funding often means the difference between whether they keep running or shut down. And when they shut down, people in those nations lose access to affordable contraceptives, STD protection (to prevent the spread of AIDS), as well as post-natal and well-baby care for mothers and their babies.

You’ve probably heard it said that the the concern of the “pro-life” movement for babies ends at the moment of delivery? This is a very real example of the truth behind that slogan. Here, copied and pasted more or less in its entirety from Pandagon, are some very real examples of how the Global Gag Rule robs huge amounts of people of necessary health care:

• In Nepal, the government threw a 13-year-old rape victim in jail for having an illegal abortion. The Family Planning Association of Nepal used her case and others to advocate for the release of women in jail for having abortions. For this, they were deemed thought criminals in violation of the global gag rule and funding was terminated.
• In Kenya, funding is lean and mean, so having entirely separate facilities for abortion is pretty much impossible. Under the global gag rule, though, you can’t even have abortions under your roof, even if not a U.S. dollar goes for them. This rule has meant that the Family Planning Association of Kenya has cut its staff in half and closed down 3 clinics, one that had a huge well baby program and post-partum care.
• Planned Parenthood of Zambia was deprived of enough funding under this that they shut down 3 of 9 rural clinics, depriving all the people in that area of one of their few, in any, sources for affordable condoms.
• The Family Guidance Association of Ethiopia can’t refer women to abortion services or perform abortions, since abortion is [already] illegal in Ethiopia. Still, they have lost half a million dollars that went pretty much strictly to providing condoms and contraceptives, because they have participated in educating the government in how illegal abortions contribute significantly to their high maternal mortality rate.

So for the crime of talking about abortion, or for providing locally-funded abortions in the same facilities that house totally non-controversial U.S.-funded services, funding for those facilities is terminated and people die for want of affordable health care.

Here’s another thing you might not know: The Global Gag Rule is undergoing active opposition in Congress. Please, do not resign yourself to “Bush will just veto any bill repealing it anyway.” Write your senators and representatives and urge them to support the bill. With enough votes, Bush’s veto can be overturned. And if you consider yourself too much an opponent of legal abortion to align yourself with “NARAL: Pro-Choice America,” just think of all those babies in Kenya who may not live to adulthood, or all those mothers whose delivery room complications go untreated, because the Global Gag Rule effectively robbed them of the post-natal and well-baby care we take for granted here in the U.S.

Repealing the Global Gag Rule isn’t about forcing you to pay with your taxes for people’s abortions. It’s about no longer forcing other people to pay with their lives for Bush’s political pandering.