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A draft executive order from the Donald Trump administration has ordered the U.S government to stop funding any United Nations(UN) agency that promotes “the performance of abortion or sterilisation as a method of family planning.”
It’s one of a number of prohibitions in the order that sets up a process for reviewing all American contributions to the UN—and automatically eliminating many others.
The order also stops funding to “any United Nations affiliate or other international organisation that grants full membership to the Palestinian Authority or the Palestinian Liberation Organisation”; any organisation “substantially influenced by any state that sponsors terrorism”; and any group circumventing sanctions against North Korea or Iran.
The draft order, if enacted, would be a significant expansion on the so-called Global Gag Rule, which only restricts usage of federal funding to organisations that do not promote (or even mention) abortion.
The rule was first implemented by Ronald Reagan in 1984 and overturned during every Democratic administration.
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is one of several UN organisations that would receive a “special review of funding” under the draft order.