The scale of the turnout at the Women’s Marches across the world recently, along with President Trump’s early reinstatement of a ban on US funding for organizations that offer family planning services in foreign countries, seem to suggest an administration already at odds with an entire gender. On this week’s podcast, three CGD senior fellows weigh in on the evidence that engaging and empowering women—both at home and overseas—makes good sense, especially in an America-First strategy.
Amanda Glassman, CGD’s COO and former director of global health policy, has written previously about how the “Mexico City Policy" could actually lead to more abortion and more lives lost. “This kind of policy just doesn’t take us anywhere,” she tells me in the podcast. “It limits funding for both international and developing-country non-governmental organizations that provide these services, and we already know it doesn’t work.”
Mayra Buvinic and Charles Kenny, co-directors of CGD’s gender program, point out that providing access to family planning for women in developing countries helps to empower women and strengthen those countries’ economies—and that’s good for America’s economy.
“If developing countries grow, they buy more stuff,” Kenny says. “They invest more in creating new technologies and new innovations, which we use.”
CGD blog posts reflect the views of the authors, drawing on prior research and experience in their areas of expertise.
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