past media summaries

May 16-31, 2001

BUSH TRANSITION

Major U.S. and international news outlets covered the historic restructuring of the U.S. Senate when Sen. James Jeffords (R-VT) announced May 24 that he was declaring himself an independent, tipping control to the Democrats. The Washington Post and The New York Times reported that Jeffords’ decision was rooted in growing discomfort with White House policy positions, notably President Bush's decision during his first days in office to reinstate a ban on federal support for international family planning groups that speak out about abortions. Jeffords’ other concerns were differences over education funding, tax cuts and the environment.

The New York Times reported May 24 that the White House preferred John M. Klink, a representative for the Vatican at the United Nations on social issues, over Secretary of State Colin L. Powell's recommended nominee, Alan Kreczko, acting assistant secretary at the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, to be Secretary at the bureau. As of today, June 5, no one has been selected for the position.

The White House appointment of right-to-life activists is also evident in its selection of NGO delegates to represent the World Health Assembly in Geneva May 21, as reported in the Washington Post May 17. In addition to Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, Surgeon General David Satcher and other HHS and State Department officials, five “private-sector advisers” selected for the official team included Jeanne Head, an anti-abortion International Right to Life Federation’s lobbyist at the United Nations. Past invitees such as the American Public Health Association and the American Medical Association were not included.

GLOBAL POPULATION

The Population Reference Bureau’s annual report on world population, “2001 World Data Sheet,” found that population growth in industrialized countries has essentially stopped, while demographic growth has shifted almost entirely to the less developed countries of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. “The developing world's population is projected to increase by 2.9 billion by 2050, compared with only 49 million in the more developed countries,” authors Carl Haub and Diana Cornelius were quoted as saying in a May 24 Environmental News Network story.

AIDS AND POVERTY

The lack of global AIDS and health funding may jeopardize further preventive measures and treatments that could affect millions worldwide, according to the May 24 Boston Globe. Four weeks after UN Secretary General Kofi Annan launched his $7 billion to $10 billion Global AIDS and Health Fund, the Globe reported the fund is making “little headway,” with projected income only at about $1 billion by the end of the year. The article said many governments are “wary” of contributing to a fund based on what seems still to be a “jumble of ideas,” although some of the funds are earmarked to purchase AIDS drugs in Africa.

A May 23 article from Africa News featured a Namibian mother’s personal account of losing her HIV-positive baby to pneumonia. The Global AIDS Fund could help provide HIV-positive mothers a $4 dose of the drug Nevirapine that reduces the risk of mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS, the article said.

Poverty was also the theme in The Nation’s May 21 story, which stressed that it is a determining factor in high rates of HIV transmission. It creates the health and sanitary conditions for greater susceptibility to infectious diseases, and also limits the options for treating disease. In a May 17 Africa News story, Zambia’s youth and child development minister was quoted as agreeing: “Poverty continues to afflict many households in Zambia, with children bearing the full brunt--as manifested in increasing child morbidity and mortality, lack of access to quality education, and malnutrition,” he said. “HIV/AIDS still remains the single biggest threat to the survival, protection and development of children, with close to 600,000 Zambian children reported to be orphaned.”

INTERNATIONAL FAMILY PLANNING AND SAFE MOTHERHOOD

Safe motherhood continues to be a critical issue in international family planning developments. Kunio Waki, Deputy Director of UNFPA, told the May 18 Ghanaian Chronicle that international financial and other support to combat Africa’s high maternal and neonatal deaths must be backed by leadership and commitment from within Africa. Waki described maternal mortality as a family health problem that denies women’s right to live out their reproductive lives.

In Zambia, an estimated 1,400 mothers out of every 100,000 die during delivery, reported Dr. Ben Chriwa of the Central Board of Health at a one-day safe motherhood workshop organized by the Zambia Integrated Health Project, according to a May 24 Post of Zambia story.

Maternal mortality can be reduced by access to family planning. In a nationwide public opinion survey by Pulse Asia Inc., nine out of 10 Filipinos agreed that it is important to have the ability to plan one’s family and to decide on one’s fertility, according to a May 22 BusinessWorld (Philippines) story. The National Statistics Office Census of Population 2000 reported the Philippine population has reached 76.5 million.

In southeastern Turkey, a group of women who suffer from gender inequality in the community of Yumrutepe said they learned birth control methods from television, according to a May 21 Turkish Daily News story. The women said they would be unable to reach the closest city 20 kilometers away in the event of an emergency because there are no roads between the city and the village. A mother of ten in Yumrutepe pleaded, “I don’t want more children. I want birth control. I have been watching programs about this issue. But these are not enough. We need someone to teach us,” she said. Within the last year, three women died in childbirth there due to lack of medical aid.

In China, after more than 40 drafts and heated debates stretching over two decades, China’s family planning and population policy is about to become legislation, according to a May 23 Inter Press story. If approved by the National People’s Congress, China’s parliament, the law would provide a strong legal defense for China’s stringent one-child policy. A May 29 Washington Post story added that China’s past policies and its cultural preference for male children have resulted in 41 million more males than females among its 1.2 billion people. Despite China’s nationwide ban on sex-selective abortions, the situation has not improved and could become “disastrous,” the article said.

OPINIONS AND EDITORIALS

After the U.S. House voted 218-210 to keep the global gag rule, several outlets across the country ran letters, opinion pieces and editorials that either criticized or applauded. The Atlanta Journal and Constitution May 21 story praised Rep. Johnny Jackson for having the “courage” to vote against the ban and identified the seven Georgia House Republicans who voted with “anti-extremists” and could have made the difference. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s May 23 editorial and the Providence Journal-Bulletin’s May 25 op ed by Edwin Leach II, former chairman of Zero Population Growth, voiced similar opinions.

Women’s Enews featured a May 23 op ed titled “Media Ignores Gag Rule’s Harm to Free Speech” by Jennifer Pozner, director of the Women’s Desk of the media watch group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. “If the media had critically and substantively reported the wide-ranging implications of the global gag rule and congressional attempts to reverse it, we might have seen quite a different outcome,” she said.

The following is one of many letters on the House vote:
May 24; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; “A Failure To Aid Women,” by Terri Bartlett of Population Action International

In Ben Wattenberg’s May 24 Washington Times column, he described immigration as a “difficult” solution for Europe’s declining population, which he called “plague demography, referring to the Black Death of the 14th century that killed one-third of all Europeans. Immigration increases will require strict law enforcement and bring social and political upheaval, he said.

The above analysis was written by Elena M. H. Cabatu and Kathy Bonk at the Communications Consortium Media Center, 1200 New York Avenue, NW, Suite 300, Washington, DC 20005, 202/326-8700. Redistribution is encouraged with credit to CCMC.

Read more about global population and related issues in the online newsroom www.PLANetWIRE.org.

past media summaries