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Access to reproductive health care can be a life-or-death issue for women in developing countries. It is also a vital service for women who have survived sexual violence. Since 2002 the U.S. has refused to contribute financially to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), which provides family planning services, including safe motherhood and prevention of sexual abuse and services to survivors of sexual violence.

The U.S. used to provide $40 million per year. This cut in their funds since 2002 has a serious effect on reproductive health services and on UNFPA’s ability to meet its responsibility for coordinating the prevention and response to gender-based violence in countries facing humanitarian crises. The U.S. has led efforts to condemn the use of rape as a weapon of war, yet the lack of U.S. financial contributions to UNFPA results in less protection for women who face such terrible violence when crisis engulfs their community.

Since 2001 the U.S. has operated under the so-called "global gag rule" – a restrictive rule that limits funding to global reproductive health and family planning programs. The rule prohibits U.S. funding to organizations that offer programs related to abortion, even if those other programs only provide counseling to women to discuss their options. Groups involved in policy discussions about legalizing abortion are similarly denied funding.

In practice this has limited women's access to reproductive health care, as organizations that refuse to close down parts of their programs have lost their U.S. funding. It has been seen by many local organizations as a way of limiting their freedom of speech to discuss issues of importance to women in their countries, and understandably many have rejected U.S. funds that come with such strings attached. At the end of the day, it is women, particularly survivors of sexual violence who desperately need access to services, who have lost out.

There is speculation that President-elect Obama and the new Congress are considering reinstating U.S. funding to UNFPA and repealing the "global gag rule." They must be encouraged to do so urgently.