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Netherlands wants to counteract Trump’s ‘global gag rule’ with its own international abortion fund
Shawn Thew-Pool/Getty Images

Netherlands wants to counteract Trump’s ‘global gag rule’ with its own international abortion fund

To counteract President Donald Trump's executive order reinstating the "Mexico City policy" barring U.S. dollars from going to international abortion efforts — which abortion proponents call the "global gag rule" — the Netherlands announced it wants to set up its own fund.

The Dutch government has said it wants to establish an international fund to give women in developing countries around the world access to abortion, birth control and education, Time reported.

According to Lilianne Ploumen, the Dutch minister for foreign trade and development cooperation, Trump's decision to re-establish the American rule will lead to "dangerous backroom procedures and higher maternal mortality."

"This decision has far-reaching consequences above all for the women it affects, who should be able to decide for themselves if they want a child, but also for their husbands and children and for society as a whole," she said, according to CNN. "Banning abortion does not reduce the number of abortions."

Ploumen hopes the Netherlands' effort to launch a fund in conjunction with other governments, businesses and social organizations will "compensate this financial setback as much as possible."

The executive order reinstating the directive was started by former President Ronald Reagan in 1984 when he delivered a United Nations speech in Mexico City announcing the move.

As TheBlaze previously reported, each Democratic president since 1984 has overthrown the policy and every Republican has reinstated it.

Several pro-abortion groups signaled that Trump's decision on the rule will cause incredible problems for women around the world.

Cecile Richards, CEO of Planned Parenthood, criticized the president's executive order on Twitter, saying the decision "contradicts U.S. values" and will "cause clinic closures around the world."

And Marjorie Newman-Williams, vice president of abortion provider Marie Stopes International, called the decision "catastrophic."

"All the medical evidence, as well as everything we know from our daily interactions with women, is unequivocal: If you take safe abortion services out of the reproductive health care package, it exposes women to risk," Newman-Williams said.

"This policy," she added, "only exacerbates the already significant challenge of ensuring that people in the developing world who want to time and space their children can obtain the contraception they need to do so."

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