As one of his first official acts as president, Donald Trump gave women the perfect visual reminder for why they're resisting his presidency and administration.
Surrounded almost exclusively by white men in suits, he signed three executive orders, one of which is commonly known as the global gag rule. That prevents non-governmental organizations working abroad from receiving federal funding for family planning if they perform abortions or even talk to their clients about abortion.
The rule applies even though clinics can't use U.S. funding for abortion services.
SEE ALSO:7 strategies for raising confident girls in the Trump eraPhotos of the signing quickly went viral on Twitter with pointed commentary about the symbolism of a group of men smiling smugly as the president makes it harder for women abroad to obtain important information and services related to their reproductive health.
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"As long as you live you'll never see a photograph of 7 women signing legislation about what men can do with their reproductive organs," Martin Belam wrote in a tweet that had been shared more than 50,000 times within four hours. Sen. Kamala Harris, a Democrat from California, challenged her followers to "tell me what's wrong with this picture."
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It's no surprise that Trump signed the executive order; overturning or reinstating it has become tradition for every Democratic and Republican president since Reagan instituted the rule in 1984. However, when President Obama repealed the rule in 2009, he did so in a written statement issued after 7 p.m. on a Friday evening. Trump chose to turn signing this executive order into a photo opportunity with a clear message about who runs his administration. Though plenty of Republican women and female lawmakers oppose abortion, they aren't featured in the images that went viral. (One woman does appear at the edge of the frame in one picture.)
While the optics may cause outrage, the larger concern is the effect of the gag rule on women's lives. Abortion advocacy groups say it forces health providers abroad, which often work in rural and impoverished areas, to reduce staff, limit services and, in some cases, close clinics. As a result, women may lose access to birth control and life-saving family planning health care.
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“Trump’s global gag rule will only lead to increases in unintended pregnancies, unsafe abortions, maternal and newborn deaths," Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement. "This harmful policy undermines American democratic values of free-speech and imposes an anti-woman agenda."
Trump may consider his executive order a victory for those who oppose abortion, but to the millions who marched over the weekend, it's just one more reason to rise up.
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