Donald Trump's ban on federal funds going to international organizations that provide abortion information as part of their reproductive services will have sweeping health consequences across the globe. In part, that's because it is written much more broadly than those implemented by previous GOP administrations, writes the New York Times:

The wording in the Trump order extends the restrictions to all American global health aid, an $8.5 billion pot of money, according to an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a research organization . More than half of that money goes to programs for H.I.V. and AIDS, including services for women of reproductive age, the analysis found. An additional 9 percent goes to maternal and child health care, which is partly aimed at promoting safe pregnancies. By contrast, the last time the rule was in place, under President George W. Bush, it applied only to family planning money, an amount that is currently around $520 million, the analysis found. As health providers braced for cuts from Washington, the Netherlands lost no time in casting itself as a defender of reproductive rights. Its Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that it would start an international fund “to make up as much as possible for this financial blow.” It gave no specifics.

Just to be clear, U.S. money was already prohibited from funding abortions abroad. This is just a really sloppy, overly broad attack on the mere mention of the term. Now it will adversely affect everything from the worldwide effort to combat HIV/AIDS to family planning services to basic healthcare needs. Social conservative groups like the Family Research Council are grinning ear to ear—they likely wrote the verbiage so its damage would go far beyond abortion. And it will.

Research suggests that the policy has had a counterintuitive impact in the past. In countries that relied heavily on funding from the United States for reproductive health services, abortion rates rose when the Reagan-era policy was in place. Researchers cite a possible reason: The aid spigot dries up for the organizations that provide contraceptive services to prevent unwanted pregnancies.

Because actually decreasing abortions has never really been the goal of social conservatives.