On this first day in office, Donald Trump signed the
"Mexico City Policy". This policy is also known as the "Global
Gag Rule" to insinuate taking away a woman's voice and freedom. The policy
simply states that the United States will ban Federal money from going to
international groups that either perform or provide any information about
abortions. This policy is obviously going to be two sided, because everybody
has a different stance on abortion.
The first article I read came from a democratic, or left
leaning site, Slate. The site gave strict facts about the policy, and made it a
point to call it the global gag rule, rather than the Mexican city policy. The
author, Michelle Goldberg, starts out by saying it is the global gag rule on
steroids. She states in her article that Trump did this very quietly, as his
first order. The white house would not take any phone calls or announce it
until later in the day, which was unusual. Her biggest argument that in the
past, the policy meant that "foreign NGO's must disavow with any
involvement with abortion in order to receive US funding." She then goes
on to say that trump's version was a huge expansion for the worst, he expanded
the policy to all global health funding. Goldberg then trails off in her
article speaking about how research for aids will be affected. She then ends it
using a quote from Ann Starrs, the president of the Guttmacher Institute. She
makes it known that she and her staff fear the white men behind the desk,
making decisions for them. Starrs tells Goldmann that she was not surprised
that it was reinstated, but she was "truly shocked". The author states that this order is not only
bad for women, but bad for men as well.
The second article I read was more republican, or right
sided. The article came from Breitbart.com and was written by Dr. Susan Berry.
Starting off this article may seem more appealing to many people because it
uses ethos, because she is a doctor, it does not state if she is a medical
doctor or a university doctorate, but the Dr. suffix before her name is
somewhat clarifying. In this article, Berry opens up by stating 5 facts about
the policy. It should be taken into consideration that she never calls it the
global gag rule herself. The facts that she states are facts that are most
commonly confused, like birth control not being affected by this policy. She goes on to quote many different people
throughout the article, which are all in support of Trump. There are positive
quotes throughout the article stating that this is "A sign that America
will be great again". This article also praises his expansion on the
policy, rather than belittling it. Berry calls his expansion a modernized
version of the policy. Towards the end of the article, she states a quote from
Susan B. Anthony president Marjorie Dannenfelser. In his quote, Dannenfelser
states that: "Thanks to President Trump, the Secretary of State is
directed to ensure Americans are no longer complicit in violating the dignity
of women and children overseas. No longer will abortion be a top U.S. export.”
Obviously after reading these two articles, they both have
very different stances on Trump’s policy. You can tell by their rhetoric. The
first article (left sided) uses pathos to appeal to the audience’s emotion. She
uses Trump as the “Common Enemy” because those who would like that article,
would not be Trump supporters. The second article is more factual, but in
obvious support of Trump. This is speaking to an audience that already has his
support.
Sources:
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/01/23/five-facts-president-trump-reinstating-mexico-city-policy-abortion/
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2017/01/trump_s_global_gag_rule_is_even_worse_than_it_seemed.html
