“One, two, three,” Soman Rai says slowly, with a click of his fingers. “Every three seconds a baby dies from abortion. One, two, three,” he repeats. Behind him, the word “Abortion” is projected on a screen in a red font that drips down the slide and resembles blood. Below it is written: Abortion is the greatest genocide in world history.
It is an uncompromising message in an unlikely location; a church in a remote valley in Nepal.
A self-described “one-man army,” Rai says he has taken his anti-abortion message to more than 30,000 people across Nepal since founding his organization Voice of Fetus Nepal in 2009.
As an audience of about 65 people gathers for his talk at the church in Beni, a small town at the foot of the Himalayas, they greet each other with “Jay Masha”, which means “praise the Lord”, instead of the traditional namast. While Rai speaks to schools and colleges, the focus of his work is on Nepal’s growing Christian community, which eagerly embraces his anti-abortion talk.
Rai speaks with the fluency and confidence of an evangelical preacher, taking his mostly female audience on an emotional journey. His message is based on the belief that life begins at the moment of conception, and is supported by the teachings of the Bible. Instead of abortion, Rai promotes parenthood, adoption and abstinence.
If his argument sounds familiar, it’s because his work is funded – at least in part – by Christian anti-abortion groups in the US and relies heavily on their message and methods.
Rai’s preaching comes at a time when women’s health care providers around the world are preparing for potentially disastrous consequences if Donald Trump were to win the US presidential election in November. When he last took office in 2017, one of his first acts was to restore and later expand an order known as the Mexico City Policy.
U.S. law has long prohibited the use of foreign aid for abortions, but the policy also prohibits foreign organizations that receive U.S. family planning funds from providing advice on abortion services or advocating for the liberalization of abortion laws, even if they do so using money from other countries. sources.
Trump has vastly expanded the policy so that it applies to any organization that receives U.S. health care funding. Foreign organizations that want to access this funding must sign the policy, which is often called the Global Gag Rule (GGR) because of the restrictions it places on organizations from even discussing the option of abortion.
Nepal first legalized abortion in 2002 and today women have the right to abortion up to twelve weeks’ gestation and in limited circumstances up to 28 weeks. It is said that the legalization of abortion contributed to a 72% drop maternal mortality rates – from 539 deaths per 100,000 live births in 1996 to 151 in 2022.
Those profits are being jeopardized by the GGR, experts say. A research into the impact of the policy in Nepal of the Center for Research on Environment, Health and Population Activities (Crehpa), a Nepalese organization, found that it had “created a major obstacle to improving the lives of women,” especially among “marginalized and disadvantaged populations.”
Since the GGR was first introduced by Ronald Reagan in 1984, successive Republican administrations have imposed the GGR, while Democrats have repealed the GGR, leaving family planning organizations such as MSI Nepal (formerly Marie Stopes International) – which refuses to sign the GGR – end up in a split. cycle of financing and definancing.
The consequences have been dire, says Tushar Niroula, executive director of MSI Nepal. “You cannot strengthen the health care system in four years and then stop for four years. Next time you’ll have to start all over again.”
Niroula says his organization had to put projects on hold due to budget cuts shortly after the Trump administration took office. “There was a huge gap overnight,” he says.
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The prospect of a Trump victory in November is already hampering MSI Nepal’s work. Members of a consortium bidding for US healthcare financing are reluctant to work with MSI Nepal, as its refusal to sign the GGR will affect the entire could jeopardize the bid, Niroula says.
“The US government funding is enormous and extends over five to six years, which is plenty of time to build systems and make them sustainable. That’s why the global gag rule is such a barrier,” he says.
Puja Karki sees what’s at stake every day in her role as team leader at MSI Nepal’s clinic in Pokhara, a city about three hours’ drive from Beni.
“It’s a lot for a woman to come here, it takes courage,” says Karki. “Some communities do not accept family planning and believe abortion is wrong. Sex before marriage is not acceptable, so unmarried women are afraid to enter the service.”
Karki says a combination of social stigma, lack of awareness and difficulties in accessing family planning services puts women at serious risk. Some turn to “unsafe and unauthorized places for abortion,” says Karki, or attempt to abort themselves using traditional herbs or a sharpened stick.
Although limited accurate and recent data is available, a study by Crehpa It is estimated that in 2014, almost 60% of abortions in Nepal were performed illegally, meaning they took place in unapproved facilities in potentially unsafe conditions. Another one study estimates the figure at 52% in 2021.
“The biggest challenge is that in rural areas they are not aware of abortion. They don’t know how to access the right services,” says Karki. “Many are not even aware that abortion is legal.”
That challenge will probably only increase under a second Trump presidency, but Rai does not seem to be interested in that. Although he says he explains the law in his conversations, he adds that if Nepali women don’t know abortion is legal, “that’s good news for me.”
When asked if he would prefer Donald Trump to win the election, Rai said: “Of course.”