How US policies, and Trump, are affecting women’s reproductive health care in Nepal.
We at CCF are especially proud of our work around menstrual health and education. For many in the West, menstruation is a non-issue. In Nepal, it is often a huge barrier for women and girls. Despite being a natural part of a woman’s life, menstruation in Nepal is often shrouded in secrecy with many cultural taboos and little information provided. Environmental disposal, cost, facilities for women and girls as well as misinformation around health and reproductive issues also make it difficult.
Girls often stay home from school during their period because of religious beliefs or lack of proper supplies, and as a result, they fall behind their male counterparts. Through CCF’s Menstrual Hygiene Program (MHP), we work to raise awareness and dissolve long held myths so that girls and women can lead normal and healthy lives free of restriction. To date, CCF has distributed 869 reusable kits throughout Nepal with incredible response. Our menstrual health training leaders report being flooded with questions, regarding family planning, prolapsed uteruses and general female anatomy—especially in hard to reach rural areas. MHP is one more way in which we are empowering Nepali women and girls to fully participate in their education, family life and society.
Despite the need for education and access to basic healthcare by women and girls in rural areas, the Trump administration has recently added additional restrictions around funding of foreign NGOs, making our menstrual health education work even more timely and critical.
Since 1984, when President Ronald Reagan first put in place the Global Gag Rule (originally called the Mexico City Policy), it has banned US funding of foreign NGOs that provide abortion counseling or referrals. Since its inception, every Democratic US President has rescinded the rule while every Republican US President has reinstated it. President Trump has expanded the policy to say that foreign NGOs that receive US aid can no longer use their own (non-US) funding to mention abortion. Because healthcare is limited in many parts of Nepal (it is estimated that in 2017, there were 7 doctors, nurses or other health care providers per 10,000 Nepalis, and most of them are based in urban settings), the situation is even more dire as rural clinics close due to funding loss and incomplete information. In many countries affected by the US government’s Gag Rule, abortion rates increase as much as 40% due to the tandem loss of information and access to birth control, according to The Lancet Global Health.
In a country like Nepal, where much of the funding has come from the US (USAID), the impacts are huge. This situation greatly increases the importance of our work, funding the remote Baseri Clinic as well as funding rural health care workers who travel to very distant remote villages to provide basic information about women’s reproductive systems. We believe that through discussion and sharing of information (including the risk of attempting abortions at home), that women will be empowered to make the decision best fit for them and their families. Access to a full range of healthcare is a human right, including counseling, allowing women control over their reproductive health.
This Giving Tuesday (December 3), CCF will be raising funds to continue education stipends and menstrual hygiene trainings. We believe that knowledge is power and knowledge about the female body, menstruation and family planning play a key role in ensuring women have equal opportunity in life. “Contraception changes lives. It allows women to take control of their futures—and in doing so, it drives economic and social development.” (- Marie Stopes International)
Join us this Giving Tuesday via Facebook or our website when your donations will go twice as far thanks to a generous supporter willing to match up to $2,000 in donations. Together we can ensure that no woman or girl is left in the dark about her body or her options. Together we can change the world, one empowered woman at a time.