EMILYs List Statement on Rescinding the Global Gag Rule

For Immediate Release
January 28, 2021

EMILYs List Statement on Rescinding the Global Gag Rule

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In response to the Trump administration’s reinstitution and expansion of the global gag rule in 2017, the Biden-Harris administration rescinded the ban today allowing U.S. foreign aid for abortion-related activities. EMILYs List President Stephanie Schriock released the following statement on the Biden-Harris administration’s action:

“I’m proud to see the Biden-Harris administration reestablish U.S. leadership on reproductive rights by immediately addressing an archaic ban that was weaponized by the Trump administration. Plain and simple, rescinding the global gag rule will save thousands of lives. Under the Trump administration, the ban constrained our global health partners who faced threats to foreign assistance to roll back global sexual and reproductive health rights. As a result, many clinics were forced to shut down, contributing to deaths from childbirth complications and unsafe abortion.

The steps the Biden-Harris administration is taking to increase access to necessary health treatments, safe abortion, and couseling will support the livelihoods of women across the globe, and particularly in the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. At the heart of EMILYs List's mission is our commitment to elect pro-choice Democratic women, and to see the U.S. declare reproductive rights are human rights is a crucial step forward to achieving reproductive freedom and justice for all people.”

EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, has raised over $700 million to elect pro-choice Democratic women candidates. With a grassroots community of over five million members, EMILY's List helps Democratic women win competitive campaigns – across the country and up and down the ballot – by recruiting and training candidates, supporting and helping build strong campaigns, researching the issues that impact women and families, running nearly $50 million in independent expenditures in the last cycle alone, and turning out women voters and voters of color to the polls. Since our founding in 1985, we have helped elect the country's first woman as vice president, 157 women to the House, 26 to the Senate, 16 governors, and more than 1,300 women to state and local office. More than 40 percent of the candidates EMILYs List has helped elect to Congress have been women of color. After the 2016 election, more than 60,000 women reached out to EMILY's List about running for office laying the groundwork for the next decade of candidates for local, state, and national offices. In our effort to elect more women in offices across the country, we have created our Run to Win program, expanded our training program, including a Training Center online, and trained thousands of women.