GT+Gag+Rule+2+(no+plan+text+type)

US assistance policies on family planning affirm notions of colonial domination. Consistent with the colonial mentality that has been used to justify our Western agenda, the Gag Rule prioritizes new right religious ideologies over matters of life and death. Gathii, 2006. The colonial control of the gag rule renders whole populations disposable. The biopolitical imperialism of the gag rule uses the claim to protect the life of some to justify condemning others to death. Hernandez-Truyol, 2006. We must address the biopolitical ideology of disposability that informs U.S. policy. Rendering visible the problem of abortion turns into an excuse for making the needs of women invisible. Giroux, 2006. Many wish to respond to the biopolitical problems raised by the gag rule by simply removing restricted access to Western biomedicine in the form of contraception and clinical abortion. However, these technological and scientific approaches to women’s health are themselves implicated in the history of race, class, and gender inequalities of Western imperialism. Harding in 1991.

Simply removing restrictions on assistance ignores the histories and experiences within our colonial past and present. Kleitz Confronting this problem necessitates more than a monolithic contruction of patriarchy. Working through the complexities that make up feminist discourse is a prerequisite to addressing the abuses of colonialism. Mohanty in 1984.

We recognize that we cannot escape our positions as privileged outsiders. Reexamining the typical commitments of western feminist discourse begins the risky project cross-cultural encounter. Narayan and Harding in 2000.

We have the opportunity to build strategies that address gender subordination—taking into consideration the individual and concrete experiences that both construct and are constructed by class, race, and culture. Narayan and Harding in 2000.