The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Donald Trump

  • China vows to fight Trump’s tariffs ‘at any cost’

    China vowed to fight “unilateral U.S. protectionism ‘at any cost’ on Friday after President Donald Trump ordered officials to examine posing an additional 100 billion dollars in tariffs on Chinese goods.

    “On Sino-US trade, China has made its position very clear. We don’t want a trade war, but we are not afraid of such a war,” a spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce told state-run news agency Xinhua on Friday.

    The ministry also vowed to take “comprehensive countermeasures,” according to Xinhua, although it did not add further details.

    The comments echo the fiery rhetoric in state and Communist Party-backed publications over the past week as the standoff with the U.S. escalates into a possible all-out trade war.

    In a statement on Thursday, Trump said he had ordered the move “in light of China’s unfair retaliation” to U.S. tariffs of 25 per cent on 50 billion dollars worth of Chinese goods he announced earlier this week.

    “Rather than remedy its misconduct, China has chosen to harm our farmers and manufacturers,” Trump said.

    “I have instructed the U.S. Trade Representative to consider whether 100 billion dollars of additional tariffs would be appropriate under section 301 and, if so, to identify the products upon which to impose such tariffs.”

    He also said he had ordered the secretary of agriculture “to implement a plan to protect our farmers and agricultural interests.”

    The retaliatory tariffs ordered by Beijing this week targeted 50 billion dollars worth of U.S. goods including key exports like soybeans, wheat, aircraft and chemical products designed to hit the rural regions where Trump is particularly popular.

    They were announced after the Trump administration unveiled a list of 1,300 Chinese products to be targeted by tariffs including from the aerospace, information and communication technology, robotics, and machinery industries.

    Tensions have been rising between the world’s two largest economies since August, when the US president initiated an investigation into anti-competitive trade practices by China and alleged theft of US intellectual property.

    US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said Thursday Trump was “right to ask for additional appropriate action to obtain the elimination of the unfair acts, policies, and practices identified in USTR’s report.”

    He also said the tariffs, like those previously announced, would undergo a review period before going into effect, leaving the door open for talks.

    Trump also said the U.S. was “still prepared to have discussions in further support of our commitment to achieving free, fair, and reciprocal trade and to protect the technology and intellectual property of American companies and American people.”

    The potential total of 150 billion dollars in tariffs on Chinese goods come on top of the Trump administration’s announcement in March that it was slapping duties of 25 per cent on steel imports and 10 per cent on aluminium products.

    Key allies including the European Union, Canada and Mexico were excluded from those tariffs, but not China.

    Trump’s tariffs have been criticized by U.S. businesses and members of his own Republican party alike.

    “The announcement that the administration may issue 100 billion dollars in additional tariffs on Chinese products is irresponsible and destabilising,” Dean Garfield, head of the Information Technology Industry Council, said.

    The National Retail Federation accused the White House of “playing chicken with the economy.”

    “This is what a trade war looks like, and what we have warned against from the start. We are on a dangerous downward spiral and American families will be on the losing end,” its president Matthew Shay said.

    Republican Senator Ben Sasse said Trump was “threatening to light American agriculture on fire” and that “if he’s even half-serious, this is nuts.”

    “Let’s absolutely take on Chinese bad behaviour but with a plan that punishes them instead of us,” he said.

    “This is the dumbest possible way to do this.”

    dpa/NAN

  • Gold rises after Trump proposes more tariffs on China

    Gold prices rose on Friday as investors sought safer assets after U.S. President Donald Trump proposed 100 billion dollars in new tariffs on China, raising concerns about an escalating trade spat between the United States and China.

    Spot gold was 0.4 per cent higher at 1,330.78 dollars per ounce as of 0032 GMT, and the U.S. gold futures rose 0.4 per cent to 1,334.10 dollars an ounce.

    Spot gold on Thursday dropped to a one-week low of 1,322.40 dollars an ounce after the United States and China signalled willingness to negotiate a trade dispute.

    However, President Donald Trump late on Thursday said he had instructed U.S. trade officials to consider $100 billion in additional tariffs on China, fueling an already heated trade dispute between the world’s two biggest economies.

    U.S. stock markets slid and the yen rose against the dollar on Friday.

    Gold-backed exchange traded funds in North America saw inflows in March, amid market volatility and as trade tensions between the United States and China drove safe-haven purchases to bullion, while Europe saw outflows for the second straight month.

    Holdings of SPDR Gold Trust, the world’s largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, rose 0.24 per cent to 854.09 tonnes on Thursday from 852.03 tonnes on Wednesday.

    Physical-gold demand in most Asian hubs was muted this week, weighed down by stronger prices, despite a slight pick-up in buying in India ahead of the wedding-season and a key-festival.

    The U.S. trade deficit increased to a near 9-1/2-year high in February, with both imports and exports rising to record highs in a sign of strong domestic and global demand.

    Koza Ltd, whose founder had to abandon his Turkish gold assets, is expanding its operations in Britain.

    It has a one million programme to drill for it in Ayrshire, Scotland, together with a venture partner, the company said on Thursday.

    Swiss refiner Valcambi said it has signed a long-term deal to refine and sell-on gold from a Fairtrade-accredited concession of Peruvian mining co-operative Minera Limata.

    The concession is part of a broader strategy to drive responsible mining.

    International mining companies have insisted that Democratic Republic of Congo amend portions of a new mining code to respect exemptions they were granted by its predecessor.

    Reuters/NAN

  • Trump: We are not in trade war with China

    President Donald Trump tweeted that the U.S. was not in “a trade war with China,’’ hours after Beijing announced tariff hikes on 50 billion dollars worth of U.S. products.

    “We are not in a trade war with China, that war was lost many years ago by the foolish, or incompetent people, who represented the U.S.,” Trump said.

    Beijing’s announcement followed Washington’s publishing of a list of 50 billion dollars worth of Chinese imports that could be subject to punitive tariffs.

    “Now, we have a trade deficit of 500 billion dollars a year, with Intellectual Property Theft of another 300 billion dollars. We cannot let this continue!” Trump tweeted.

    Also China hit back on Wednesday at the Trump administration’s plan to slap tariffs on 50 billion dollars in Chinese goods, retaliating with a list of similar duties on key U.S. imports including soybeans, planes, cars, whiskey and chemicals.

    Beijing’s list of 25 per cent additional tariffs on U.S. goods covers 106 items with a trade value matching the 50 billion dollars targeted on Washington’s list, China’s commerce and finance ministries said.

    The effective date will depend on when the U.S. action takes effect.

    The announcement triggered further heavy selling in global stock markets and commodities, with U.S. stock futures sliding 1.5 per cent, soybean futures plunging 3.7 per cent and the dollar briefly extending early losses.

    Hours earlier, the U.S. government unveiled a detailed breakdown of some 1,300 Chinese industrial, transport and medical goods that could be subject to 25 per cent duties, ranging from light-emitting diodes to chemicals and machine parts.

    Washington’s move, broadly flagged in March, is aimed at forcing Beijing to address what Washington says is deeply entrenched theft of U.S. intellectual property and forced technology transfer from U.S. companies to Chinese competitors, charges Chinese officials deny.

    Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman, Geng Shuang, said China had shown sincerity in wanting to resolve the trade dispute through negotiations.

    “But the best opportunities for resolving the issues through dialogue and negotiations have been repeatedly missed by the U.S. side,” he told a regular briefing on Wednesday.

    “We regret that soybeans are on the list. We have done everything to prevent this from happening, but we are still calling for a resolution,” said Zhang Xiaoping, China Director of the U.S. Soybean Export Council said.

    dpa/NAN

  • Trump escalates attack on Amazon, slams it on taxes, shipping

    United States President Donald Trump has blasted Amazon.com Inc with a list of complaints, a day after news website Axios reported that Trump wants to curb the mega retailer’s growing power.

    He was said to have done so by using Federal Antitrust laws and led its shares to fall almost five per cent.

    “I have stated my concerns with Amazon long before the Election.

    ” Unlike others, they pay little or no taxes to state & local governments, use our Postal System as their Delivery Boy , and are putting many thousands of retailers out of business!” Trump said in a post on Twitter early on Thursday.

    Amazon Founder and Chairman, Jeff Bezos, also privately owns the Washington Post, which won a Pulitzer Prize last year for its investigation of Trump’s donations to charities.

    The probe found that many of Trump’s philanthropic claims were exaggerated and often were not charitable donations.

    Still, White House Deputy Press Secretary, Raj Shah, shot down the notion that Trump’s criticism was part of a personal grudge.

    “A lot of people have made this, with respect to Amazon, about personalities and the CEO at Amazon – we’re talking about Jeff Bezos here,” he said on Thursday on the Fox News Channel.

    “It’s really about policy.”

    Shah reiterated that Trump was not making specific policy changes.

    Read Also: Trump ‘keen’ to meet North Korea leader after China talks

    “There are a number of proposals that have worked their ways through the House and the Senate or have been considered by the House and the Senate.

    He would be supportive of such efforts,” he said.

    Trump’s claims about Amazon’s state and local tax payments have faced skepticism.

    Meawhile, the company was once criticised for attempting to skirt state sales taxes, it currently has a reputation as a leader in collecting the levies, which can vary from state to state.

    Legally pursuing Amazon could affect more than its share price, which was largely steady after Trump’s tweet.

    Amazon is currently in the process of establishing a five billion dollars second headquarters which could bring 50,000 new jobs to the location it selects.

    In January, it winnowed the list of possible locations down to 20 metropolitan areas.

    Apart from nationwide goods deliveries, Amazon’s services include video streaming, a digital home assistant known as Alexa, and an online payments program.

    NAN

  • Trump appoints John Bolton as new NSA

    United States President, Donald Trump, has appointed a former United Nations ambassador John Bolton, as the new National Security Adviser.

    He replaces HR McMaster as the NSA, the BBC reports.

    Mr. Trump tweeted to thank Gen. McMaster, saying he had done an “outstanding job and will always remain my friend.”

    Mr. Bolton, who has backed attacking North Korea and Iran, told Fox News his job would be to ensure the President has “the full range of options.”

    He becomes Mr. Trump’s third national security chief in 14 months.

    Gen. McMaster is the latest high-profile departure from the White House.

    Last week, Mr. Trump fired Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson by a tweet, replacing him with former CIA Director, Mike Pompeo.

    Mr. Bolton’s appointment does not require U.S Senate confirmation. He will take the job on April 9.

    Mr. Bolton, 69, has been a foreign policy hawk in Republican circles for decades, having served in the administrations of Ronald Reagan, George HW Bush and George W. Bush.

    The second Bush appointed him as U.S envoy to the UN, during which time diplomats privately criticised Mr. Bolton’s style as abrasive.

    A strident neo-conservative, Mr. Bolton helped build the case that the late Iraq President, Saddam Hussein, possessed weapons of mass destruction, which turned out to be wrong.

     

     

  • Soyinka condemns spate of killings, kidnappings in Nigeria

    Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, on Thursday condemned the spate of killings and kidnappings in several parts of the country.

    Soyinka made the condemnation in Lagos while speaking at a programme “The Ripples Dialogue: Rebuilding a Divided Nigeria.”

    He described wanton killings of innocent Nigerians by criminals and herdsmen as “homicidal fiesta”, saying the situation was unfortunate.

    Soyinka said the government’s response to the security challenges was poor, especially those associated with herdsmen.

    He said it was bad for herdsmen to invade and kill people across communities in the country to graze their cattle.

    “The Lake Chad Basin is receding.The water is drying up. But that should not be a reason for herdsmen to attack people in Bayelsa, down in Oyo and Ogun, that should never be an excuse,”he said.

    Soyinka also condemned the abduction of school girls in Daphchi in Yobe State by Boko Haram members .

    He said that the abduction would have been prevented if those saddled with ensuring security in the school had done the right thing.

    The Nobel laureate described Boko Haram as “blood sucking “, saying their activities are a threat to humanity.

    On  the myriads of problems facing the country, Soyinka said Nigeria would be a better country if leaders were committed to service and the welfare of the people.

    The Nobel Laureate, however, said the followership also had its share of blame for some of the problems.

    He said working nations were not built by leaders alone but by good followers too.

    On the “shit hole” remark made by President Donald Trump about Nigeria and some other countries, Soyinka said the American president latched on the numerous problems in the country.

    According to him, if Nigerians had made the country work, Trump would not have had the opportunity to use such derogatory term to refer to the country.

    Soyinka, however, said he was not disappointed by President Trump’s  comment as he had always seen him as not fit for the office.

    The Nobel laurate condemned a bill being proposed by the National Assembly prescribing death penalty for those who made hate speeches.

    He said the bill was an attempt by the lawmakers to silence speech so that they could be immune to  scathing criticisms.

    While describing hate speeches as “dangerous and destructive”, he said hanging people was not the right  punishment.

    “Hate speech is bad and destructive, but do I want anybody hanged? No, I would rather want people shamed, “he said.

    Soyinka also urged the government at all levels to be alive to their responsibility.

    In his contribution, Dr Reuben Abati, immediate past  Special Adviser to former President Goodluck Jonathan on Media and Publicity, said there was a disconnect between leadership and followership in the country .

    He  attributed the disconnect to  the mistrust between the two, in the light of failure of leadership to deliver the goods.

    Abati urged  leaders to discharge their responsibilities to the people, not only to earn the trust of their followers, but also to promote the development in the country.

    NAN

  • EU chief urges Trump to ‘make trade, not war’

    EU Council President Donald Tusk has urged the U.S. to resume trade talks amid a looming trade conflict between the two trading blocs.

    “Make trade, not war, Mr President,” Tusk said on Wednesday, addressing U.S. President Donald Trump following talks in the Finnish capital of Helsinki with Prime Minister, Juha Sipila.

    On March 8, Trump declared global tariffs of 25 per cent on imported steel and 10 per cent on aluminium with exemptions for Canada and Mexico and potential flexibility for others, triggering a wave of international condemnation and stoking fears of a trade war.

    The U.S. president defended the decision on Wednesday, tweeting: “We cannot keep a blind eye to the rampant unfair trade practices against our country!”

    Tusk said the U.S. president’s proposal “is a bad sign for transatlantic relations” and underlined the need to “go back to EU-U.S. trade talks now.”

    The EU has mentioned it could introduce counter-tariffs on U.S. products including bourbon, Harley Davidson motorcycles and Levi’s jeans.

    “When the president complains of too many tariffs between the EU and the U.S., I can understand him. We are not happy either,” Tusk said.

    Tusk reminded of historic ties between Europe and the U.S., and noted that Trump has said “real friends will be excluded from the proposed measures.’’

    “I would like to stress today that the free world has survived the most difficult decades only thanks to the fact that Europeans and Americans have been real friends, so let us cherish this friendship, not challenge it,” he added.

    dpa/NAN

  • U.S. will condemn Russia if it was behind attack on ex-spy – Trump

    President Donald Trump suggested that he thinks Russia was involved in the attempted murder of an ex-spy, Sergei Skripal, in Britain and said that the U. S. will condemn Moscow if this is determined conclusively.

    “It sounds to me like it would be Russia based on all the evidence they have,” Trump told reporters.

    “It sounds to me like they believe it was Russia and I would certainly take that finding as fact,” he continued.

    “As soon as we get the facts straight, if we agree with them, we will condemn Russia or whoever it may be.”

    Russia has denied involvement in the poisoning of Skripal, and is ready cooperate with the UK on the issue, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday.

    On Monday, UK Prime Minister Theresa May said that it was “highly likely” that Russia was responsible for the suspected poisoning of Skripal.

    May said that the substance used in the poisoning was identified as a Novichok class, military-grade nerve agent developed in Russia.

    “We have already made a statement that this [Russia’s involvement] is rubbish … Russia is innocent, Russia is ready to cooperate in accordance with the Chemical Weapons Convention, if the UK … implements its international legal obligations under this document,” Lavrov told reporters.

    In an ultimatum to Russia, May demanded an explanation for the poisoning by the end of Tuesday and threatened to apply harsh response measures.

    The prime minister added that she would discuss the measures against Russia with parliament on Wednesday.

    “If procedures envisioned by the convention are implemented, then I assure you Russia will respond to the relevant request in the time allotted to prepare a response,” he added.

    dpa/NAN

  • Trump agrees to meet North Korea’s Kim

    Trump agrees to meet North Korea’s Kim

    President Donald Trump of the United States of America (USA) is set to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, a man he once dismissed as “Little Rocket Man”.

    The high level talks are  scheduled for  May as part of the effort  to  free the  Korean peninsula of nuclear arms, a South Korean official said outside the White House on Thursday.

    It would be the first face-to-face meeting in history between a U.S. president and a North Korean leader.

    The opening came through shuttle diplomacy by a South Korean delegation that arrived in Washington on Thursday. Trump heralded the development as a “major announcement” after speaking with the South Korean president.

    Read Also: Trump and North Korea leader to hold ‘milestone’ meeting

    “I told President Trump that in our meeting, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said he’s committed to denuclearization. He pledged that North Korea will refrain from any further nuclear or missile tests,” South Korean national security adviser Chung Eui-yong told reporters after meeting with Trump at the White House.

    Chung met with Kim earlier this week, and came to Washington on Thursday to relay the message from the North Korean leader.

    “I explained to President Trump that his leadership, and his maximum pressure policy, along with international solidarity, brought us to this juncture,” he said.

    The Trump administration has rallied the United Nations to impose ever-tightening sanctions against North Korea following a battery of missile tests.

     

  • ‘Global Gag Rule will continue to harm young people seeking access to reproductive choices’

    ‘Global Gag Rule will continue to harm young people seeking access to reproductive choices’

    The US President, Donald Trump signed an executive order that would block funding and foreign aid to any international nongovernmental organisations that provide abortion services to women seeking them or those that even offer abortion as an option to unwanted pregnancies. The Global Gag Rule, as it was dubbed was first established in 1984 by the Republican president, Ronald Reagan; when Barack Obama took office, he rescinded the policy in 2009. OYEYEMI GBENGA-MUSTAPHA reports that the Global Gag Rule has ripple effects not only on women’s freedom on reproduction choice but on adolescents too.

     

    Access of sexually active adolescents to contraception can make a difference. And forestall untimely deaths. Nigeria has the highest rates of adolescent fertility in sub-Saharan Africa. Over 900 000 births to adolescents occur annually and 150 out of every 1000 women who give birth in Nigeria are 19 years old or under.

    These are the stark realities painted by Dr (Mrs) Morenike Oluwatoyin Folayan who is the Coordinator of the New HIV Vaccine and Microbicide Advocacy Society. Dr Folayan is a Reader with the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Nigeria. As an advocate involved in youth’s reproductive and sexual health, she could not but express her concerns about the effects of Global Gag Rule (GGR) on Nigerian youths.

    The New HIV Vaccine and Microbicide Advocacy Society (NHVMAS) recognised that access and use of effective contraception provide both health and social benefits by reducing unintended pregnancies and abortions. These critical benefits of contraception use are of importance to adolescents in Nigeria, especially female adolescents.

    Female adolescents are more at risk of having unintended pregnancies and unwanted births which can lead to non-psychotic major depression (postpartum depression), feelings of powerlessness, and a reduction in overall physical health. For adolescents who have unintended pregnancies, school drop-out and complications of illegally induced abortion are some of the complications reported with dare consequences. Pregnant adolescents also have greater risks than adults for sexually transmitted infections, especially HIV-1 infection.

    Sadly in Nigeria, contraception access and its promotion are limited to married women. Its association with family planning makes the public, community and health care providers think of contraception for use only among couples who are thinking of spacing children. While there are clear guidelines and programmes that promote access of women to contraception, there are conflicting guidelines on access and programmes for sexually active adolescents to contraception. Family planning centres also have limited competency to education and support adolescents’ use of contraception. Finally, the concept of parental consent prior to sexually active adolescents’ access to contraception creates a barrier to access of adolescent to education and uptake of contraception services.

    Nigeria is a signatory to the FP2020 targets. It made a commitment at the 2012 London Summit on Family Planning to achieve a modern contraceptive rate of 27 percent among all women by 2020 and updated this commitment in 2017. It, however, did not make clear statements on promoting access of adolescents to contraception within its framework for increasing contraceptive rates.

    With the stark reality that Nigeria gets its support on commodities from international donors, the issue of adolescents’ access to contraception will be further plunged, and more unplanned pregnancies will occur, leading to termination with its consequences. Girls also get pregnant from rape. So those safe spaces from abortion are needed.

    Dr Folayan said GGR, as a policy serves to deny U.S. funding to global health organisations if they use money from other donors to provide abortion services, counseling or referrals, this is despite these services being legal in the U.S.; and ultimately, it removes critical funding for life-saving health services like contraception, maternal health, and HIV prevention and treatment in developing countries such as Nigeria.

    Dr Folayan is apprehensive that her organisation’s roles in advocating, supporting and creating the right environment that facilitate access and free choices of youth to contraception will soon be dampened, and the little progress recorded so far will be eroded.

    As she said that the global gag rule becomes a threat to this slow-growing movement, “all organisations working in the family planning space that receives funding from the US government cannot provide or discuss abortion services. This is not about them using US funds to fund abortion. They cannot use any other source of funding they access to do work on safe abortion, also simply because they access US funding.”

    “This is the major threat to the work with adolescents in Nigeria. Abortion currently remains the main form of contraception for many adolescents who sadly cannot get access to modern contraception at healthcare clinics because of stigma from healthcare providers. They resort to myths and misconceptions to prevent pregnancies. When pregnant, they then resort to abortion. More than 50 percent of the adolescents’ unwanted pregnancies are terminated by abortion. Nigeria has one of the highest rates of female adolescent abortion in the world. Making abortion safe is critically important for adolescents in Nigeria. Creating safe abortion spaces for adolescents as part of the comprehensive sexual and reproductive health response for the adolescent is non-negotiable. The global gag rule will shrink our ability to create that space in Nigeria,” she lamented.

    NHVMAS does not do direct service delivery, but referral, and as a recipient of funding from international agencies advancing safe reproduction services it has started feeling the heats of the effects of GGR.

    Dr Folayan recalled that NHVMAS indirectly received PEPFAR funding through a project it had. “Before we signed the contract for the 2017/2018 grant, we were informed about the global gag rule and its implication. We did write back to the organisation that we shall not sign to the rule and were ready to drop the grant if we had too.

    “They did not come back asking us to sign for it. We did get our grants. So, yes at NHVMAS, we can continue to advocate for the sexual and reproductive health and right of adolescents, even to safe abortion, with some fears and concerns about the global gag rule limiting what we do. However, NHVMAS is one of the many organisations that can continue to work in the space, because we are resilient. A large number of organisations working in the space may otherwise be affected by the GGR. So in effect, the number of NGOs working in creating safe abortion spaces may just shrink with time.”

    Dr Folayan is not too happy with this reality as she can tell of stories of adolescents who have had to deal with abortion, and how abortion was their safe way out, as she explained, “Many adolescent girls do things that make them have incomplete abortion. Those safe abortion spaces provide them the needed help to get their lives back, and have the chance to make good success of their lives.”
    “There are adolescent boys and girls in committed relationships also need those spaces, they have sex, the girl gets pregnant but they both are not ready for commitment. They both come to such created safe abortion spaces to procure abortion so they both can continue with their lives together. It is not all just about illegal abortions.

    She explained, and added, “I can tell of stories of adolescents who have had to deal with abortion, and how abortion was their safe way out. Many adolescent girls do things that make them have an incomplete abortion – many, many, many, many, many. Those safe abortion spaces help them handle the incomplete abortion.
    In low-income countries, complications from pregnancy and childbirth, including unsafe abortion, is one of the leading causes of death for young women ages 15-19. Each year at least two million women undergo unsafe abortions, and tens of thousands die from them. The country’s restrictive law on abortion is responsible for this.”

    Dr Folayan recollected how she met Sade (not her real name) who had attempted an abortion using local herbs. The abortion was incomplete. She had gone to a private clinic to seek help but the cost was too exorbitant. “I met Sade during one of my project visits to a site that creates safe spaces for adolescents to accept contraception. Sade was able to access cost-free safe abortion services to prevent her coming down with septic abortion – a condition that increases her chances of not being able to have babies in future. With the application of the global gag rule, such safe abortion spaces will not be available to a large number of girls like Sade who need such safe spaces to provide services to prevent septic abortion.

    Also, during one of her monitoring visits, she learnt about Tosin and Taofeq (not their real names) who were sexually active adolescents, committed to one another, but could not access contraception at any health care facility because of fear of stigma. Tosin became pregnant. Taofeq came with Tosin to one of those safe abortion spaces to procure an abortion. They were not ready for any children. They both had their education to deal with. The space not only helped procure an abortion for this adolescent couple, but also introduced them to contraception so they could prevent further pregnancies. So as an organisation, and as advocates we see GGR taking reproductive rights away from women, especially youths.

    “The problem extends far deeper than access to abortions. It also means that these organisations who offer so much more than abortion, for example, sexual health education, regular STI screenings, and all other sexual health-related services, will be denied funding simply because they offer abortion as a choice.”
    Won’t there be a rescinding of this stifling policy? Live and let live.