Evidence and reality must trump Trump's ideology: an international perspective.

Abstract

In his editorial in this journal’s April 2017 issue, Grossman anticipated that President Donald Trump would have to make changes from his ambitious electoral promises when making decisions in office.1 Whereas the domestic economy, security and health were top priority issues for the USA presidential election, the themes of a political campaign are quite different from the precise positions required during policy formulation, especially when world events intrude on the “America first” transactional perspectives that seek to “make America great again”. With both health and security knowing no geographical boundaries, a domestic agenda has global repercussions. Reacting to the anticipated international “population bomb” of the 1960s, the USA promoted family planning (FP), which was subsequently recognised as an integral part of maternal and child health, an essential element of primary healthcare as defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1978. Considering …