A Dutch Rebuke to Donald Trump Over Abortion
The Dutch government is creating an international fund to help women pay for birth control, abortion and family planning education, a move that follows U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order to ban U.S. funding of such practices.
In the Wednesday announcement posted on the Dutch government’s website, Lilianne Ploumen, the nation’s minister for foreign trade and development cooperation, said the move is a response to the Trump administration’s announcement.
“This decision has far-reaching consequences,” Ploumen said in the government announcement about the Trump action. “Banning abortion does not reduce the number of abortions. What it leads to is dangerous backroom procedures and higher maternal mortality.”
Trump on Monday reinstated a policy that requires foreign nongovernmental organizations that receive U.S. global family planning funds to certify that they do not perform abortions or provide abortion advice as a method of family planning. The policy is known as the “Mexico City Policy” and has been instituted by Republican administrations and rescinded by Democratic ones since 1984. As reported by The Hill, the move by Trump came a day after the 44th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling that made abortion legal in the U.S.
The Dutch government estimates that Trump’s action will cause a funding shortfall of $600 million over the next four years, according to a Reuters report. In its announcement, the Dutch government cited Marie Stopes International, one of the affected organizations, as saying that the cut in funding it receives will result in 6.5 million additional unwanted pregnancies, 2.2 million additional abortions – many of them unsafe. The organization added that the cut in U.S. funding would result in the deaths of 21,700 young mothers over the next four years.
“We feel the urgency, but we want to do this properly,” Busstra said, speaking by telephone from Amsterdam. Busstra said individuals, including in the U.S., have contacted the Dutch government to voice support for the plan. “We are overwhelmed with the positive reactions around the world.”
The Dutch government’s announcement comes as the international community is anxiously girding itself for Trump’s proclamation that its foreign and domestic policies will be driven by embracing “America first.” With his first week in office not yet over, Trump already has signed an executive order that withdraws the U.S. from the Tran-Pacific Partnership trade pact with Asia-Pacific countries.
Multiple countries, including close U.S. allies, are still assessing what “America first” will mean for trade and other relations between their nations and Washington. British Prime Minister Theresa May on Friday will be the first foreign head of state to visit Washington and meet Trump. Trade is expected to be a large part of their conversations.
