"Die-in" planned to protest anti-abortion federal order

Activists will hold a “die-in” at the Auraria campus on Thursday to protest the Trump Administration’s global gag rule on abortion.

“This ‘die-in’ will simulate being dead in order to represent the number of lives lost from this deadly policy,” organizers of the #Fight4HER reproductive rights campaign wrote in a press release.

The gag rule, officially known as the Mexico City Policy, refers to a prohibition on federal aid to any world organizations if they perform, promote or even provide information about abortion. This prohibition extends to organizations that use their own money for abortion-related services and information.

The Reagan Administration first introduced the policy in 1984, and various presidents have rescinded and reinstated the gag rule since then. President Donald Trump revived the Mexico City rule in the first week of his presidency, just as President Barack Obama dropped it in the first week of his.

The Mexico City Policy potentially jeopardizes $7.4 billion in aid to programs addressing HIV, maternal and child health, malaria and nutrition, the Kaiser Family Foundation reports.

During the “die-in” at the Tivoli Student Union, a second group of activists plans to visit the Denver office of U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner to ask him to support the Global Health, Empowerment and Rights Act. The bill — which 43 Democratic, two independent, and two Republican senators currently back — would require aid to resume for health services that are legal in the U.S. and in the destination country.