Publication Date: 11/22/2002

Description: The Doctor's Story Nepal still has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world - with as many as five out of every 200 women dying in childbirth. In January 2000, President Bush re-imposed the global gag rule - also known as the Mexico City policy. This stops US Aid going to any foreign non-governmental organisation that either supports or promotes abortions. Many of these organisations also provide vital health facilities but without US funding are now unable to operate. The programme follows the lives of doctors and patients who are trying to overcome enormous problems to get even basic healthcare in Nepal. Steven Sinding, newly appointed Director-General of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), explains the full effects of the policy: "When the global gag rule is imposed, it doesn't just target abortion, it targets organisations - most of whose activities have nothing to do with abortion. But if they refuse to renounce counselling or referral on provision of abortions, they lose all their money. And that's the harsh reality at the field level - that safe motherhood is denied because of abortion politics in the United States."