Global Gag Rules; A Case of Mansplaining in International Relations

"As long as you live you'll never see a photograph of 7 women signing legislation about what men can do with their reproductive organs. " Martin Belam

        The term ‘mansplaining’ has raised several definitions in gender discourse. In my essay, I will define mansplaining as the act of explaining without regard to the fact that the explainee knows more than the explainer, often done by a man to a woman in a condescending manner. This condescending manner may result from overconfidence and cluelessness that is often possessed by a man when they want to assert their superiority over their female counterparts. One example of mansplaining in International Relations would be the reinstatement of global gag rule or New Mexico Policy by US President Donald Trump’s administration. Global Gag Rule withholds USAid funding from any overseas family planning organization that offers or provides information about abortions. The regulations also affects civil society programs, such as contraception provision, and campaigns for LGBT communities and teenage girls. Work to combat HIV and Aids, cervical cancer and Zika will most likely suffer as well.

            What is sad about Global Gag Rule’s reinstatement is that once again, the agenda of feminist movement in upholding abortion rights to give the ultimate authority of women’s body to themselves is being betrayed by the established system of government. In the beginning, this policy was instituted by Reagan’s administration, then revoked by Clinton’s, then reinstated again by Bush, revoked by Obama and finally last month it was reinstated back by Trump using executive order. During the changing stance of government throughout the years all of the discussion and debates relating to the issue of abortion rights is mostly dominated by men who claims that they are working to achieve ‘what is best for the women themselves’ without necessarily able to identify the root cause of women discrimination or deconstruct the inherent oppressive nature of current established government toward women and that the system in itself has been perpetuating oppressive patriarchal values. At worst their arguments against abortion rights are delivered in a blatant misogynist point of view that disregard women entirely, while at best, they still bore the patronizing undertone.

            Even without the patronizing delivery, global gag rule in itself has blatantly mansplained in a way that US is arbitrarily trying to decide what’s best for women in both US and developing states without necessarily taking their circumstances into consideration. Trump and his Republican supporter of global gag rule have singlehandedly decided that women should not be given the right to abortion. This will surely harm women especially in the developing country where women are more vulnerable and unplanned pregnancy will definitely be a burden for them. Even more problematic when the World Health Organization has said that unsafe abortion is one of the main causes of maternal mortality worldwide especially in the context of refugees’ camp and areas affected by conflicts. Understanding that US federal government has been one of the most significant source of funding for NGOs working worldwide to assist world’s health especially that of women, this policy would surely be harmful for women around the world, yet ridiculously all the men who put this policy into action seemed to genuinely believe that they have done something right on the ‘behalf of the women’.