Last week’s "She Decides" conference drew 400 delegates, including 20 ministerial delegations, to Brussels to discuss the impact of the U.S. government’s “global gag rule” and to raise funds to help tackle the shortfall in family planning aid that has been created.
The gag rule prevents non-U.S. nongovernmental organizations that provide services or information relating to abortion from receiving government funding for any of their activities, a move that will likely reduce access to contraceptive services, maternal health care and HIV prevention, among other things.
Among those speaking was Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, executive director of the U.N. Population Fund and former minister of health of Nigeria. He told Devex that the conference and fund was not about abortion: “This is [about] sexual and reproductive health and rights — the whole range of services — and empowering women to take charge of their lives; that is what it was about,” he said.