Abortion is health care, everywhere

THE WORLD’S MOST VULNERABLE PEOPLE are harmed by a U.S. law that restricts funding for safe abortion services—the Helms Amendment. This amendment bars U.S. foreign assistance funds from being used for abortion services. The way that the law is interpreted and implemented denies people their reproductive rights and deprives them of the care they want and need. It reduces the availability of safe, legal abortion, denies health-care providers life-saving equipment and training and censors critical health information.

Every year, roughly 35 million women and girls around the world have unsafe abortions, and millions suffer injuries and disabilities as a result. The Helms Amendment puts lives at risk; when women and girls can’t make their own reproductive health decisions, and have limited access to vital health care, this means dire consequences for their health. This law has plagued abortion care in the Global South for nearly five decades.

The Abortion is Health Care Everywhere Act was introduced on July 29, 2020, for the first time ever in the U.S. House of Representatives by Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (D-IL).  Reps. Nita Lowey (D-NY), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Jackie Speier (D-CA), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Diana DeGette (D-CO), and Norma Torres (D-CA) are all original cosponsors of the bill. This historic legislation removes the Helms Amendment from statute and replaces it with proactive language stating that U.S. funding shall be used to provide comprehensive reproductive health-care services and information, including abortion services, training, and equipment.