The lies and distortions by Pro Life people are harming woman throughout the world.

http://www.alternet.org/gender/how-americas-insane-anti-choice-crusaders-screw-over-women-all-over-globe?akid=14707.294211.nbF40L&rd=1&src=newsletter1064541&t=6

The American right wing yells so loudly and so wrongly about abortion that it can be difficult—even for Americans—to have a real sense of where much of the country stands on the issue. The right shouts down the truth despite endless evidence they are lying, then feigns surprise and innocence when someone from their base is moved to violence by their rhetoric. While innumerous polls, a majority of Americans say they support legal abortion, andeven more stand with Planned Parenthood, all that shouting might lead one to believe otherwise. It should come as no surprise then, that America is seen as a nation hostile to abortion rights. And that image is having a negative impact on the reproductive rights of women in other countries around the world.

Laura Bassett and Ryan Grim, in a piece for Huffington Post, point out that misleading domestic and international news coverage of the abortion debate has led to abortion policy changes abroad. There’s also the matter of the Helms Amendment—named for the late North Carolina senator who opposed pretty much everything decent in this world—which bans the use of U.S. foreign aid to fund abortions for any reason.

In Kenya, many perceive the U.S. as so staunchly anti-abortion, according to Bassett and Grim, that they believe the procedure is outlawed in America. The country’s leaders have modified Kenyan law to follow suit, and recently “revoked its official guidelines on the safe provision of abortions and implemented draconian policies so as not to offend what it perceives to be U.S. sensibilities against abortion.”