The hastily convened global gathering of governments in Brussels to pledge tens of millions of euros to family planning charities who had their US funding pulled by Donald Trump’s so-called “global gag” has been a tightrope to walk for the British government.

Trump reinstated the rule by executive order in his first few days in the White House, meaning US government funding cannot be provided to charities whose work includes offering abortion services.

Perhaps more than any other country, the UK has been keen to demonstrate that, whatever the concerns about the Trump administration, the answer is engagement rather than isolation. In January, Theresa May became the first foreign leader to meet the US president on a trip criticised by some as overly hasty. Given the UK’s need for new and fast free trade partners after the exit from the EU, such a position is perhaps unavoidable.

Viewed through this prism, its decision to send Rory Stewart, a junior minister, rather than Priti Patel, the secretary of state for international development, could be interpreted as a mild snub to the She Decides conference, an event intended by its organisers to be a symbol of solidarity against Trump. Ditto the UK decision not to pledge any additional money, when countries from Norway to the Netherlands are stumping up millions.

But that is not how ministers at the Department for International Development see it. They say they have been planning to host their own major global summit on family planning over the summer with the UN and that – far from ignoring the issue – the department has intensified UK aid efforts on family planning.

Observers might detect a sense of irritation that the UK will now be put in a position where it is a follower, rather than a leader, given that this week’s conference has been convened by the Dutch, Belgian and other northern European nations.

However, critics have warned that the determination of the department to forge its own path, rather than be perceived as embarrassing Trump, could leave charities in limbo, without specific pledges that their loss of support from the US will be matched elsewhere.

That uncertainty could have long-term consequences for reproductive health in developing countries. About half of all abortion procedures worldwide – more than 20m – are unsafe, with the vast majority in developing countries. About 68,000 women die annually after backstreet abortions, making it one of the leading causes of maternal mortality, according to the World Health Organization.

Five Labour MPs wrote in January to Patel to urge her to commit emergency funding to the She Decides effort, arguing that policymaking needed to be reactive to a volatile political climate. “We would implore you to take urgent steps on funding and policy as the Dutch government has, and as the UK government has done so previously, to mitigate the impact of this decision,” they wrote.

At least one of the MPs is speaking from experience. Gareth Thomas was a minister at DfID in 2006 when the Labour government publicly defied George W Bush’s own reinstatement of the global gag rule to pledge money for safe abortion services where US funding had been cut off.

At the time, the International Planned Parenthood Federation praised the bravery of the UK, saying they were “deeply grateful for the gesture not only financially but politically”.



Any kind of similar statement of thanks from charities in 2017 would be deeply unhelpful to the Conservative government in the post-Brexit era, connecting international aid spending to diplomacy.

Sources at the department see the decision by European and other governments to make immediate pledges to match the support as too hasty and say the scale of the funding gap from Trump’s order has not yet been fully calibrated. The UK’s 2006 funding pledge came five years after Bush’s order, and in a very different political climate.