With the Global Gag Rule once again imposed—perhaps predictably—by President Donald Trump, the health and well-being of millions of women in developing countries around the world will be in serious danger, according to a leading global women’s health initiative.

And it will do nothing to reduce abortions, says EngenderHealth, a New York-based organization that specializes in material and reproductive health.

Feeling helpless but motivated to do something to help women who will be impacted? Here are three organizations dedicated to women’s health around the globe that will need support moving forward in light of Trump's move

EngenderHealth

The group works on advancing family planning; maternal health; preventing and educating about HIV, AIDS, and STIs; engaging men as partners in reproductive health; improving clinical quality; and advocacy and policy.

It notes that an estimated 220 million women worldwide want to avoid pregnancy and plan their families but lack access to modern contraception.

Marie Stopes International

The organization helps women all over the globe “have children by choice, not by chance”. Every year, it states, millions of women become pregnant unintentionally. Without a safe, legal way to end their pregnancy, almost 22 million, mostly in developing nations, will resort to a life-threatening unsafe abortion – and 47,000 will die as a result.  Another 289,000 of them will die from pregnancy-related causes.

Marie Stopes provides contraception and safe abortion to women and girls in urban and rural communities all over the world, including those in fragile states and conflict zones and during natural disasters.

International Planned Parenthood Federation

With a central office in London, the federation works in 172 countries, providing services to improve sexual and reproductive health and gender rights for women, youth, and girls, especially those who are underserved.

It also supports marginalized communities that have the greatest need for sexual and reproductive health services, including sex workers, people who inject drugs, sexually diverse populations, and prisoners.

More on the Gag rule and the women it will affect

Also known as the Mexico City Policy, the Global Gag Rule requires that overseas organizations that receive U.S. aid do not provide abortion—or even mention the word. As a result of the president’s January 23 executive order—signed just two days after international women’s marches took place—groups that don’t meet the condition will lose all U.S. funding, including that for essential supplies of contraceptives and maternal health care.  

The Global Gag Rule was first established by Ronald Reagan in 1984. It was later rescinded by President Bill Clinton, re-established by President George W. Bush in 2001, and rescinded again by President Barack Obama in 2009 before being reinstated by Trump.

EngenderHealth, which works to improve the health and well-being of people in the poorest communities of the world, reviewed several countries in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East to determine the impact of the Global Gag Rule from 2001 to 2009.

It found that, although the rule was meant to target abortion providers, it had terrible consequences for the health and lives of poor women and their families in ways that had nothing to do with abortion.

“In each of these places, the Global Gag Rule affected family planning, HIV services, maternal and child health, and even malaria services,” EngenderHealth states on its website. “And in no place did the policy reduce abortions. In fact, the irony is that this policy led to more unwanted pregnancies."

Some specific consequences of the rule from Engender Health’s 2006 updates:

In Nepal, which has one of the world’s highest maternal mortality rates, mobile clinics providing reproductive health care to rural regions were discontinued, leaving clients without access to services.

In Kenya, leading reproductive health-care providers were forced to close eight clinics, which, in most cases, were the only source of health care for local communities. Outreach services are often the only access rural men and women have to contraceptive supplies and education on HIV/AIDS.

The country’s leading family planning organizations were forced to withdraw from a U.S.-funded project to provide comprehensive and holistic reproductive and child health care, as well as HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, to vulnerable populations.

In Zambia, the sole NGO to operate reproductive health clinics, lost nearly 40 percent of its staff members, scaled back services, and ended vital community-based distribution of contraceptive supplies and health information, particularly that related to HIV-prevention.

Maternal and child health programs will suffer also, the organization states, including voluntary HIV testing and referral services, and so will gender-based violence-prevention programs.