Unprecedented Domestic Gag Rule Creates Culture of Silence in Healthcare

After the Trump administration announced they would implement a nationwide “domestic gag rule”, a dangerous policy threatening the healthcare of millions, NARAL Pro-Choice America President Ilyse Hogue issued the following statement in response:

“The Trump administration and the anti-choice extremists he is pandering to with this dangerous rule know that knowledge is power which is why they are directly attacking a woman’s right to know exactly what her full range of options are when it comes to an unintended pregnancy.

“The idea that the government should instruct doctors about what they can or cannot say to their patients—a relationship Americans hold sacred—should send shivers down the spine of everyone who ever wanted to know the facts and the truth about their own healthcare.

“This anti-choice administration has shown there is no price too high to pay in their scorched earth approach to end legal abortion in this country, including access to other vital healthcare services. Voters in this country will certainly remember this callous action this November and for a long time to come.”   

This domestic gag rule is part of a pattern by the Trump administration to push policy after policy to rollback our basic rights since their very first day in office. When the Trump administration implemented the global gag rule, services were cut, healthcare centers were closed, and women were cut off from healthcare across the world. This rule dismantles Title X, the nation’s program for affordable birth control and reproductive healthcare, which 4 million people rely on to receive essential care. This administration has eliminated the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program, attempted to rip healthcare away from millions of Americans, implemented a rule that allows bosses to decide whether or not their employees can get birth control, and more.