WASHINGTON—This week, U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) reintroduced the Global Health, Empowerment and Rights (HER) Act. The Senators’ bipartisan legislation would permanently repeal the harmful Global Gag Rule, also known as the Mexico City Policy, which bans federal funds for foreign non-governmental organizations that use non-U.S. funds to provide abortion services or provide information about abortion as part of comprehensive family planning services. Last week, the Trump Administration reinstated the ill-conceived Global Gag Rule, after the Biden Administration had rescinded the policy in 2021. The Global Gag Rule forces clinics to choose between providing limited reproductive health services while accepting U.S. foreign aid or providing inclusive family planning and reproductive health care with a limited budget. The policy means organizations that receive U.S. international aid for other reasons, such as HIV prevention, maternal health, or fighting diseases like malaria, cannot educate their communities on safe abortion or their funding will be pulled. This bill is cosponsored by 41 U.S. Senators and a companion version is being led in the U.S. House of Representatives by Representative Lois Frankel (D-FL).
“The Global Gag Rule has had a detrimental effect on the ability of women around the world to access important health services and reproductive care,” said Ranking Member Shaheen. "We have made great strides towards ending preventable maternal and child deaths, reducing mother-to-child transmission of HIV and combating gender-based violence. The Global Gag Rule puts that progress at risk. I’m reintroducing the bipartisan Global HER Act to permanently repeal the Global Gag Rule so we can finally take this dangerous policy completely off the table.”
“Women around the world, regardless of their financial status or geographic location, deserve access to comprehensive healthcare, and a reinstatement of the Global Gag Rule jeopardizes that access,” said Senator Murkowski. “This bipartisan legislation permanently repeals the Global Gag Rule, and ensures that healthcare providers have continued stability to provide critical, often life-saving, care to women and girls everywhere.”
Key Provisions of the Global HER Act:
Full text of the Global HER Act is available here.
The Global HER Act is cosponsored by Senators Merkley (D-OR), Warnock (D-GA), Durbin (D-IL), Cortez Masto (D-NV), Cantwell (D-IN), Welch (D-VT), Murphy (D-CT), Reed (D-RI), Blumenthal (D-CT), Hirono (D-HI), Bennet (D-CO), Whitehouse (D-RI), Kaine (D-VA), Rosen (D-NV), Schatz (D-HI), Murray (D-WA), Hickenlooper (D-CO), King (I-ME), Padilla (D-CA), Klobuchar (D-MN), Booker (D-NJ), Baldwin (D-WI), Coons (D-DE), Ossoff (D-GA), Sanders (I-VT), Warren (D-MA), Slotkin (D-MI), Duckworth (D-IL), Wyden (D-OR), Smith (D-MN), Kelly (D-AZ), Markey (D-MA), Lujan (D-NM), Alsobrooks (D-MD), Warner (D-VA), Hassan (D-NH), Gillibrand (D-NY), Van Hollen (D-MD), Schiff (D-CA), Schumer (D-NY) and Gallego (D-AZ).
The Global HER Act is endorsed by 58 organizations representing global health, women’s reproductive rights, women’s equality, civil rights and other relevant advocacy constituencies.
Ranking Member Shaheen has been a leading advocate for the repeal of the Global Gag Rule. Ranking Member Shaheen and Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Susan Collins (R-ME) previously introduced the Global HER Act in 2017, 2019 and 2021. In 2023, she reintroduced the Global HER Act with Senator Murkowski, which was cosponsored by 49 U.S. Senators. She has also led an amendment to end the Global Gag Rule and boost funds for international family health planning and reproductive health programs which has been included in the Senate’s State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs annual appropriations bills. On the one-year anniversary of the GGR’s reversal under President Biden, Ranking Member Shaheen led a group of 45 Senators in a letter to Senate and House leadership, urging the inclusion of a permanent repeal of the Global Gag Rule in the fiscal year (FY) 2022 State, Foreign Operations and Related Agencies government funding legislation.
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