Senators Criticize Global Gag Rule

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March 23 -- A group of U.S. senators has launched a bipartisan effort to overturn the “global gag rule” that President Bush imposed in January on international family planning organizations.

On his first full day in office, President Bush reinstated restrictions on this year’s $425 million in funding for those groups that bars recipients from counseling, advocating or providing abortion services, even if it is with their own funds. The gag rule was roundly criticized by women’s health organizations, physicians, family planning groups and European governments as endangering women’s lives by depriving them of essential family planning information and services.

Democratic Sens. Harry Reid of Nevada and Barbara Boxer of California say they already have five Republican co-sponsors for the repeal effort, which will use the little-known 1996 Congressional Review Act that allows Congress to approve legislation rejecting regulations of the federal departments and agencies. Reid said the group has the 30 Senate votes it will need to bring the repeal to the floor.

Reid called the gag rule an “ill-conceived, anti-women, anti-American policy” that denies women adequate care and information about contraception and therefore has the effect of increasing abortions, not of reducing them. He noted that a 1973 law already barred use of U.S. funds for abortion services, and that the gag rule barring speech about abortion “turned the clock back on women around the world by almost two decades.”

The repeal effort is thought to have a good chance of passage in the Senate, but less in the House, where opponents of abortion are seeking various new restrictions. Douglas Johnson, legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee, told the New York Times he was confident that President Bush would veto any gag rule repeal measure that did pass both houses.

But Boxer said she hoped both House members and President Bush might reconsider their positions. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), was also optimistic. “I believe there is a lot of support in Congress for family planning,” he told the Associated Press. “I think the regulation will be overturned.”

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