The Mexico City Policy (MCP) is damaging for women and communities and will have consequences that reverberate around the world for years to come. The Mexico City Policy came to be known as the Global Gag Rule (GGR), referring to the “gagging” of any abortion related talk (Gezinski, 2011, p.839) if an organization receives U.S. federal aid. In order to improve the quality of international development and global health and reproductive rights, it is important to understand the harms that this policy causes and, in contrast, how access to quality family planning improves people’s lives (Obaid, 2009, p.102). The MCP does not promote access to non-abortion related alternatives to reproductive health, but in actuality, limits healthcare to women, children, and men in the Global South (Jones, A., 2004, p.188).
The Mexico City Policy was first announced at the International Conference on Population held in Mexico City by the Reagan administration in 1984 (The White House Office of, Policy Development, 1984, p.574). Text in the memorandum contains text claiming to respect local cultures and individual rights:
“We believe population programs can and must be …show more content…
The law is a very gendered policy that illustrates the subjugation of women as a political tool (Crimm, 2007, p.592). The structural violence of the patriarchy is to blame for the roles that gender plays in the Mexico City Policy. The Christian Right movement, that has had an increasing role in Republican politics, aims to take away a woman’s human right to health care and autonomy due to a view that a fetus is more important than the woman carrying it (Gezinski, 2011, p.839). While the Christian Right is composed of both men and women, the politicization of women’s bodies and their right to make choices over it stem directly from a patriarchal history of men both being in power and using that power to control
The Mexico City Policy was first announced at the International Conference on Population held in Mexico City by the Reagan administration in 1984 (The White House Office of, Policy Development, 1984, p.574). Text in the memorandum contains text claiming to respect local cultures and individual rights:
“We believe population programs can and must be …show more content…
The law is a very gendered policy that illustrates the subjugation of women as a political tool (Crimm, 2007, p.592). The structural violence of the patriarchy is to blame for the roles that gender plays in the Mexico City Policy. The Christian Right movement, that has had an increasing role in Republican politics, aims to take away a woman’s human right to health care and autonomy due to a view that a fetus is more important than the woman carrying it (Gezinski, 2011, p.839). While the Christian Right is composed of both men and women, the politicization of women’s bodies and their right to make choices over it stem directly from a patriarchal history of men both being in power and using that power to control