Secretary of State Marco Rubio Will Be a Disaster for Women

[niyad]

Secretary of State Marco Rubio Will Be a Disaster for Women
PUBLISHED 1/15/2025 by Jaime M. Gher and Thomas Dresslar

Rubio poses an extreme threat to global gender equality. Nowhere is this clearer than his rabid and consistent opposition to abortion rights.

(does anybody besides me see a resemblance to george santos here?)

. . . Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), testifies during his Senate Foreign Relations confirmation hearing on Jan. 15, 2025. (Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images)

On Wednesday, Marco Rubio appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for his confirmation hearing as the next secretary of state. Rubio is expected to be confirmed without any serious opposition, thanks to the rarity of Cabinet nominee rejections and public support for Rubio, even among Democratic senators. (Rubio served for years on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as a senator from Florida, and Democrats like Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Cory Booker of New Jersey greeted him warmly on Wednesday.) But make no mistake—Rubio’s history of hostility toward reproductive autonomy and his recent embrace of “America First” nationalism heralds a State Department that decimates women’s health, human rights and well-being.

The extreme threat Rubio poses to global gender equality is nowhere clearer than his rabid and consistent opposition to abortion rights.
While running for president in 2015, Rubio said he opposed nearly all abortion, even in cases of rape and incest. Rubio double-downed on his position when running for Senate reelection in 2022, saying he would support a national abortion ban without exceptions. His history of opposition to abortion rights will be extremely relevant when he assumes leadership at the State Department. The U.S. remains the world’s largest distributor of foreign aid, and much of that money goes to healthcare providers in Global South countries. Yet, thanks to a myriad of antiabortion restrictions likely to be imposed by Rubio, many of these providers will be blocked from providing abortions to those who need it most.


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Rubio has consistently supported Helms and the global gag rule. In fact, he wants to push them further. In a 2020 letter, Rubio joined a group of senators urging Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to expand the “global gag rule” further than the Trump administration. But Trump’s expanded rule already had a devastating impact on women as well as providers, health workers and critical public health systems around the world. Rubio’s antiabortion extremism will also impact human rights here at home. Rubio praised the Dobbs Supreme Court ruling that has unleashed a human rights crisis that United Nations special rapporteurs and international treaty review bodies have condemned. Rubio’s State Department is likely to actively try to undermine international efforts to protect U.S. abortion rights. This antiabortion crusade is just one element of a wider campaign against reproductive health and human rights. Last year, Rubio sent a letter to the Biden administration opposing a proposed State Department rule mandating nondiscrimination in foreign assistance. Rubio called the rule “wokeness,” saying it would bolster “leftist priorities, like abortion and gender identity” at the expense of faith-based organizations.

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Any discussion of Marco Rubio is incomplete without reference to his extremely hawkish positions on U.S. military intervention. Rubio is an enthusiastic supporter of Israel’s war in Gaza, which has killed or displaced tens of thousands of civilians, a majority of whom are women and girls. The unique and devastating impacts of war on women are well-documented; Rubio has supported military aggression against China, Venezuela, Iran, Iraq and the Houthis in Yemen. Because of Rubio’s former support for a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, his endorsement of some global aid programs and other ostensibly moderate positions, his secretary of state nomination is seen by some observers as “the best of the worst.” This view ignores both his history of extreme positions on issues like abortion and his recent evolution as a nationalist in total lockstep with Donald Trump. Secretary of State Marco Rubio presents a clear and unique threat to the human rights of women, and it’s critical that we understand him that way.

https://msmagazine.com/2025/01/15/secretary-of-state-marco-rubio-women-abortion-helms-amendment-global-gag-rule/