Halsey recently teamed up with the Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE) to fight President Donald Trump’s global gag rule.
On Jan. 23, Trump signed into effect the global gag rule, a ban on funding for any international organization that offers or advises on abortion-related services in cases other than rape, incest or life endangerment. The global gag rule was originally established by Ronald Reagan in 1984 and since then has been rescinded by every Democratic president and reinstated by every Republican president. Trump actually expanded the gag rule to include all global health services that receive funding from the U.S., including programs that address HIV and infectious diseases such as Zika, malaria and Ebola.
The gag rule will have life-threatening consequences for women around the world ― and Halsey just spelled out those consequences in a new video for CHANGE.
In the video, posted to Facebook on Thursday, Halsey explained what the global gag rule is and the impact it has on women around the world.
The result of the global gag rule? “Women die,” Halsey said.
“The global gag rule means that more women in sub-Saharan Africa may die from unwanted pregnancies and unsafe abortion.”
- Hauwa Shekarau, Nigerian activist and director of IPAS
Hauwa Shekarau, a Nigerian activist and director of women’s health organization IPAS, said in the video that unsafe abortion is a major contributor to the high maternal mortality rate in Nigeria.
“The Trump administration is playing politics with the lives of women in Africa,” Shekarau said. “The global gag rule means that more women in sub-Saharan Africa may die from unwanted pregnancies and unsafe abortion.”
To help fight the gag rule, CHANGE ― along with Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) and 200 other lawmakers ― has introduced the Global HER Act, which aims to end the gag rule once and for all.
“None of us are free until all of us are free,” Halsey said. “And the oppression of women in some of the poorest countries from Africa to Latin America to Asia is directly tied to our own. So let’s do our part to join CHANGE and support all women when they need it most.”
Head over to CHANGE to learn more about the Global HER Act.
