by Kavita Ramdas

When President Barack Obama rescinded the Global Gag rule in January, he reminded us that we can not face the challenges of the 21st century if we fail to embrace and invest fully in the wellbeing, safety, and human rights of 51% of the world’s population and its greatest untapped natural resource – women.

It was also a reminder of the ways philanthropy can literally save lives. Indeed, more women are alive and healthy today because of your contributions to the Now or Never Fund.

Let us go back to January 2001. That is when then President George W. Bush reinstated the Global Gag rule, which denied funding to clinics and health care providers that mentioned abortion or provided abortion services as a part of their comprehensive health and reproductive services. The practical result was clinics lost a significant portion of their budgets, forcing them to reduce health services for women and girls and in some cases, shut down. A report published by Population Action International (PAI) found that clinics and other providers in 29 countries were forced to close their doors, including a clinic in Lesotho that distributed 400,000 condoms between 1998 and 2000.

At the time, a reporter from the San Francisco Chronicle called to ask, “What do you think this means for women internationally?” My heart heavy, I spelled out what it would mean – the challenges it would pose to countries like Kenya and Ethiopia, where prenatal care and vaccinations are offered to women in the same tiny one room health clinics as family planning advice, contraception, and yes, counseling about abortions. I spoke about the effective­ness that contraception and sex education programs combined with access to safe and legal abortions had in reducing the incidence of abortions overall.

With the stroke of a pen, thousands of women lost their lifeline to basic healthcare services. For example, because of the gag rule, the US refused to pay its $34 million dollar dues to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), an organization that provides access to basic healthcare for the poorest of the poor and where access to a doctor can mean the difference between life and death.

Adding insult to injury, in the spring of 2003, with a war raging in Afghanistan, the US invaded Iraq. Ironically, that fateful decision marked a turning point for the Global Fund. For on the day of the invasion board member Laurene Powell Jobs turned to us and said, “It’s unconscionable to only raise money for an endowment when women are in great need today. Women need the money now.”

We created the Now or Never Fund for the women who counted on us to stand in solidarity with them. We made a bold push to raise $10 million to spend down over five years to infuse critically needed resources into the a global women’s movement staggering from growing militarism and extreme religious reactionary movements seeking to oppress and silence women. Second, the Now or Never Fund would invest in “lynchpin” organizations critical to holding ground in the struggle for reproductive rights and freedoms. It would stand with women’s groups coping with war, conflict and religious extremism. It really was Now or Never.

We rose to the challenge with an unprecedented and generous outpouring of support – by our grantees around the world as well as individual and foundation donors here in the US. Women came together to make $1 million gifts. Our lead donor didn’t even allow me to finish my question when she said, “I’m in,” then comforted me through the tears.

The Now or Never Fund made it possible for clinics, like the one run by our grantee the Afghan Institute for Learning (AIL), to remain open. What is the value of funding an organization like AIL, providing maternal health care to women in a country with the highest maternal mortality rate in the world? Priceless.

Since then, we have infused an additional $2 million per year to women’s groups worldwide who have refused to yield to extraordinary pressure. They resisted and we stood with them, as you have stood with us to make the Now or Never fund possible. Arundhati Roy’s words ring so true: “A new world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a clear day, I can hear her breathing.”