A scoping analysis of the effects of the worldwide gag rule on global health

The 1984 Mexico City Policy is a U.S. federal law that forbids foreign nongovernmental organizations that receive U.S. international family planning assistance from using their own, non-U.S. funds to offer, counsel on, or refer for abortion services as a method of family planning, or advocate for the liberalization of abortion laws — with the exception of rape, incest, and life endangerment. The policy’s ability to silence pro-abortion lobbying led to its adoption as the “global gag rule” (GGR). Up until 2017, when a presidential memorandum expanded the policy to virtually all US$8.8 billion in foreign assistance for global health, it had only ever been applied to family planning funds. This scoping review aims to characterize and map the effects of the aforementioned expansion.