Trump’s Options: Will he nuke abortion clinics?

Donald Trump was 12 years old when ‘The Ugly American,’ a political novel by William J. Lederer and Eugene Burdick was published in 1958. It’s doubtful if Trump has read it (if he has a library at home, it would be similar to the one Scott Fitzgerald’s fictional hero had in ‘The Great Gatsby’). But the new US president unwittingly reminded people around the world about the ugly American in his very first day in office – and the world must endure more than another 1800 days, as Trump tries to remake the world according to his own misogynic vision.
One of Trump’s first acts as president was to reinstate the global ‘gag rule’ which means that every doctor and clinic in the world receiving American aid is prohibited even from talking to women about abortion, even if abortion is legal in their countries.
On the second day, he gave the go ahead to his much touted threat to build a wall along the border with Mexico which shows that nothing much has changed in the way some politicians view the outside world since the Great Wall of China was built. The Chinese at any rate faced a genuine threat of raids and invasions. Donald Trump is so insecure that he dreads an invasion of penniless Mexican immigrants.

Actually, the title of that book was vastly misunderstood. It became a synonym for globe-trotting Americans insensitive to other cultures. But the fictional ugly American in the book is actually a good man, one who works hard with his wife to improve the lot of the farmers of an imaginary Asian country called Sarkhan. If Trump takes the trouble to read the book, he might learn a thing or two from it. But he won’t. Instead, we have the proverbial monkey with a razor, albeit in the White House.
This is Trumpism, or Trumpalism, or the realpolitik of Donald Trump. More nail-biting days ahead after these two but, as Audrey Hepburn chirped and shrieked so breathtakingly in My Fair Lady, ‘And without much ado we can all/muddle through without you.’ But Her Trump right now is the most powerful man on earth. Therefore he’s going to be an annoying presence in the lives of millions as we keep counting the days to the next US presidential election. In Sri Lanka, we have a penchant for imaginary spring rolls and one hundred days honeymoons after a new administration is sworn in. The Americans are too practical a people to hold their breath that way. But a safe guess is that, long before that magical, mystical 100, many of those who voted for Trump would end up singing along thus with Hepburn:

‘”What a fool I was, what an addle pated fool
What a mutton-headed dolt was I.”
Substitute contemporary American swears words for ‘addle pated fool’ and ‘mutton-headed dolt.’ Likewise, abortion clinics around the world will survive the Donald Trump years but millions of women, including some of those who voted from Trump, would be harassed and pushed around, or worse.

"Legal or otherwise, abortion is seen as a functional and health-related necessity all over the world. Trump thinks he can stop it, but he’s mistaken."

Why should Donald Trump, a man who openly brags that he likes to grope attractive women, be so unremittingly against abortion? That’s a good one for a psychoanalyst with some free time. The Trumps have five children. American political dynasties don’t need to visit abortion clinics, at least not for economic reasons. John F. Kennedy and his wife had five children (including one miscarriage). Robert Kennedy and wife Ethel had eleven at a time when family planning was seen as the panacea for all ills in the ‘developing world.’
Whatever motivates a woman to go in for an abortion, the choice belongs to her and, as the case may be, her partner. The president or prime minister of that country doesn’t need to advise, meddle, lambast or assist. More countries in the world are pro-abortion now. The majority of those where it is illegal could be termed poor, such as Senegal, Kenya, and Uganda in Africa to Bangladesh, Myanmar and Mauritius in Asia (many might feel insulted if Sri Lanka is termed a poor country, so it is up to you) but it is illegal in Ireland and Malta, too; though most of the European Union, as well as almost all of the formerly communist Eastern bloc (excepting Poland) allow it under differing criteria.
Legal or otherwise, abortion is seen as a functional and health-related necessity all over the world. Trump thinks he can stop it, but he’s mistaken. He’ll be merely seen as a nuisance, though a dangerous one. But, to paraphrase Audrey Hepburn: “Abortion clinics will survive despite you.”