Giving Compass' Take:

• As policies aim to limit access to safe, legal abortions in the U.S. and around the world, the Global Fund for Women highlights the deadly consequences of outlawing the procedure. 

• How can funders work to protect the health and wellbeing of women across the U.S. and around the world? 

• Read more about the future of abortion in America. 

States across the U.S. are passing the most restrictive abortion laws in decades. Georgia, Ohio, and Mississippi recently passed legislation making abortion illegal past six weeks into pregnancy, a time when the vast majority of women are not aware they are pregnant.

The US has been exporting anti-choice measures as well. The Trump administration recently expanded the global gag rule which prohibits any organization from receiving funding from the U.S. government if they provide services, referrals, and advocacy related to abortion – even with non-U.S. government financing.

We know that lack of accessibility to abortion does not reduce the number of abortions. In fact, the rates of unsafe abortion are highest where there are the most restrictions. According to recent estimates, at least 8% of maternal deaths worldwide are from unsafe abortion; at least 22,800 women die each year from complications of unsafe abortion. In 2014, the annual cost of providing post-abortion care from unsafe abortions in developing countries was US$232 million.

Anti-abortion laws have powerful and negative economic consequences. Women in the U.S. who want an abortion, but are denied one, are more likely to spend years living in poverty than women with abortion access.

Read the full article about the consequences of anti-abortion policies at Global Fund for Women.