This week, the White House announced new restrictions on Title X that threaten to cut off funding to any health care provider that refers, provides, or even mentions abortion, leading to dire consequences, primarily for low-income women.
After years of experience fighting against US abortion restrictions on foreign aid, the Global Justice Center has the expertise necessary to counter this new Domestic Gag Rule.
The Trump administration proposed a domestic “Gag Rule” last night, banning health centers that provide, refer, support, or assist women in accessing abortion services from receiving Title X funding. This dangerous policy will deny women their fundamental human rights.
Like the Global Gag Rule reinstated by President Trump in 2017, the Domestic Gag Rule will coerce doctors into staying silent about the option to terminate a pregnancy (except in extremely limited circumstances) under threat of losing their government funding. In effect, the Domestic Gag Rule will prevent doctors from providing complete and accurate medical guidance to women. Even if a patient asks directly where she can obtain an abortion, a Title X provider will not be able to provide her with direct information in order to allow her to access her constitutionally protected right.
Since 2005, the Global Justice Center has worked with our partners in Iraq to hold perpetrators of gender-based crimes accountable in order to ensure a rule of law based on gender equality.
Today, your support is critical as we lead the effort to ensure justice for ISIS’ genocide against the Yazidi in Iraq.
As our recent legal brief illustrates, and as our Staff Attorney Grant Shubin made clear in a New York Times Letter to the Editor, “If prosecuted under Iraq’s penal code, basic crimes of ISIS’ gender-based violence will go unpunished.”
Photo: DVIDSHUB / CC BY 2.0
Janet always said that “For there to be justice, peace and security in the world, there has to be equality of women in fact.”
She founded the Global Justice Center to help create that world, where women and girls have equal access to justice under the law and in practice.
An official appointed by Trump said during a closed-door meeting at the UN that the United States is a "pro-life country."
Legally, it's not.
The official also tried to negotiate the removal of any references to "sexual and reproductive health" in a UN document. Every day, the Trump Administration shows its willingness to take even more radical anti-choice positions than past Republican administrations.
Photo: Steenaire / CC BY 2.0
From the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements to the #SheDecides Campaign, women are speaking up to demand equal rights and representation. It is up to us to make sure that this sea change creates permanent advances that positively impact women’s lives for generations to come.
On International Women’s Day,
#PressforProgress with the Global Justice Center.
Today is the 20th anniversary of V-Day, a global movement to stop violence against women and girls. On this day, GJC is focused on the women and girls raped in war who are denied lifesaving medical care.
US restrictions on foreign aid regularly deny abortion services to women and girls raped in war. The Trump administration made these restrictions exponentially worse by reinstating and expanding the Global Gag Rule.
Thank you for marching with the Global Justice Center in honor of our fearless founder, Janet Benshoof. Janet fought her entire life to advance women's equality and we are grateful to you for honoring her with us and for carrying on her powerful legacy.
Thank you again. It was wonderful to march alongside you and we hope to see you again soon!
Join GJC this weekend as we celebrate the incredible life of our founder, Janet Benshoof.
Join GJC in marching in honor of our fearless leader, Janet Benshoof, in the Women's March on New York City - Saturday, January 20th.
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It is with deep sadness that the Global Justice Center announces the passing of its founder and fearless leader, Janet Benshoof. A generational force and tireless advocate for the rule of law and women’s equality, Ms. Benshoof’s family announced her passing on December 18th. She was 70 years old.
“Janet dedicated her life to fighting for justice and equality,” said her family. “It gives us great comfort to know that her fighting spirit will be carried on by the Global Justice Center and all those whose lives she touched.”
That’s Illegal! is the Global Justice Center's new podcast about the importance of international law, why we have it and why we should implement it. Each episode, GJC's legal experts and special guests discuss current events, break down the legality of what's happening and explore possible avenues for positive change.
In our latest episode we are joined by Sareta Ashraph, an international law barrister with expertise in humanitarian law and criminal law, to discuss the genocide ISIS is committing against the Yazidi.
In May, the Trump administration announced an updated policy greatly expanding the Global Gag Rule. This will have a drastic effect on $8.8 billion in US health care aid. As a result, millions of women and girls around the world will lose access to contraception and maternal health care. Hundreds of clinics serving in-need populations around the world will be forced to close. Women will die.
For more, please read my recent Op-Ed piece published in Ms. Magazine, on how to fight this odious policy.
We saw this coming. In January when Trump first took office as an anti-choice president, he immediately re-instated the Global Gag Rule. We knew there was more to it and yesterday with his newest policy, “Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance,” Trump confirmed that he has expanded these anti-abortion restrictions to impact $8.8 billion in global health assistance. This expansion is unprecedented.
We are ready. We are fighting back.
We are not in the same place we were when the Gag Rule was instated by Reagan or Bush. We will not let Trump take us backward. We can and do demand radical change against policies that are deadly to women and do no respect the lives of women.
In April, the United Nations contacted the Trump administration and warned them that repealing the Affordable care Act and leaving millions without health coverage would violate the US’s legal obligations under international human rights treaties.
Yesterday, the Trump administration and the US Congress ignored these warnings.
When governments fail to stand up for human rights it is up to the people and civil society to stand strong and speak up.
In 1945, on the ninth day of testimony at the Nuremberg Trials, the prosecutors introduced a damning piece of evidence - a film that showed the gas chambers at Dachau. Nineteen Nazi war criminals were convicted, and the Nuremberg Trials helped establish an international system of criminal law that included the adoption of the Genocide Convention.
The Genocide Convention has some of the strongest protections under the law for victims, but its effectiveness rests on states fulfilling their obligations to prevent, suppress and punish genocide.
I’m back very recently from meetings in Brussels and London and we are not alone! The growing resistance to Trump’s actions to undermine women, including by censoring abortion-related speech globally, is real and growing.
I am convinced that the Trump debacle has opened up unforeseen opportunities to make radical advances to improve the rule of law, including women’s rights.
I was invited to meet with the EU officials to discuss ways the EU could fight the US abortion restrictions. I presented at a parliamentary briefing and we equipped European policy makers with charts and memos on the likely impact of the restrictions on EU humanitarian aid.
Over one month ago Donald Trump reinstated and expanded the Global Gag Rule. As organizations around the world wait for official guidelines on what the expansion means, GJC and other women's rights groups are already working hard to combat these deadly restrictions on women's healthcare.
Today, GJC participated in the She Decides Conference in Brussels. The conference brought together representatives from governments, civil society and women on the ground with the aim of joining forces to mitigate the impact of the decrease in US funding from Trump's Global Gag Rule.
Women have been the leaders of successful resistance movements around the world. From the women of Liberia's mass action for peace, to mothers in Argentina and women's groups in Burma, women's rights activists are often the first to speak out against the rise of extremism.
After the women's march on January 21st, which was the largest peaceful day of protest in US history, GJC and other women's rights groups are keeping the momentum going.
Join GJC in DC on March 8th, the day of the nationwide Women's Strike, as we protest against Trump's reinstatement and expansion of the Global Gag Rule.
The Trump administration is feeling the pressure. All around the country people have been coming together and standing up to his dangerous policies, saying, “We won’t go back.”
Both at home and abroad, GJC knows that fighting back works.
We invite you to join us this week as we stand together with the legal community in New York City to protest an agenda that violates human rights.
