Mexico City Policy Expands and Saving Rural Cambodian Mothers

Editors' Note

On January 27, the Trump administration finalized new restrictions on U.S. foreign assistance. The Promoting Human Flourishing in Foreign Assistance Policy expands the scope, scale, and ambiguity of the Mexico City Policy—also known as the Global Gag Rule. Rather than bar U.S. funding for groups that provide abortion counseling or referrals, the new rule stretches to programs run by nongovernmental organizations, international groups, or foreign governments that support gender ideology and diversity, equity, and inclusion.

To decipher how the Human Flourishing policy will influence $30 billion in annual aid, Stephanie Psaki, former U.S. coordinator for global health security at the National Security Council, describes how the new policy's ambiguity will force organizations to cut permissible health programs out of fear of noncompliance and could even undermine the America First Global Health Strategy.

To continue the conversation on the U.S. withdrawal from the World Health Organization, Chatham House's Ebere Okereke outlines the immediate implications for Africa. She emphasizes that health is a core function of statecraft, not a discretionary social sector buffered by external goodwill.

To cap the newsletter, TGH travels to Cambodia, where obstetrician-gynecologist (OB-GYN) and health administrator Suren Kanayan describes how his rural hospital used inexpensive strategies to reduce severe postpartum hemorrhage by nearly 40%, and how to apply those changes to maternal care in other resource-constrained settings.

Until next week!—Nsikan Akpan, Managing Editor, and Caroline Kantis, Associate Editor