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Bush Administration Expands the Global Gag Rule
Written by the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA)
Click here for more information on the Global Gag Rule
August 29, 2003 -- President Bush issued an executive memorandum late Friday extending the global gag rule to family planning funds administered by the U.S. Department of State. This most recent attack follows biting criticism Bush received this week when he officially withdrew funding from the Reproductive Health for Refugees Consortium, which provides reproductive health and HIV prevention services for refugee women - some of the most vulnerable women in the world.
Gloria Feldt, President of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said of the White House decision today that "just like his original global gag rule, President Bush's extension of the global gag rule condemns the world's most vulnerable women, who will be denied prevention services like HIV and family planning counseling and information. The world's poorest women and their children again are bearing the brunt of Bush's obsession with appeasing his domestic political base. This is the real face of Bush's compassionate conservatism - a war on women and children across the globe. The only remedy is for Congress to pass and a president to sign the Global Democracy Promotion Act, and I look forward to it."
Background
Since late fall 2002, the Bush Administration has withheld refugee assistance for the Reproductive Health for Refugees Consortium, in an effort to exclude Marie Stopes International (MSI), a U.K.-based reproductive health provider that also provides abortion, from receiving U.S. funds. The consortium includes CARE, American Refugee Committee, International Rescue Committee, the Women's Commission for Refugee Reproductive Health, Johns Hopkins International, the Columbia School of Public Health, along with MSI. Rather than risking public outrage, the long delay in the release of funds was never put on paper or formally announced.
However, earlier this week, the New York Times reported that the administration had officially withdrawn funding for the consortium based on Marie Stopes' involvement. In an admirable show of solidarity, the consortium refused to exclude MSI from its work in order to receive funding from the State Department. The administration's move drew significant public criticism from Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) who rightly exposed Bush's political motives that come at the expense of women's health and rights. Claiming that MSI operates in China and is therefore in violation of the Kemp-Kasten anti-coercion restrictions (the same restrictions Bush interpreted to defund UNFPA), the administration defunded the Consortium. Note that there was neither an investigation into purported violations of the Kemp-Kasten restrictions nor a legal memorandum justifying defunding the consortium, and the State Department went so far as to claim in the New York Times article that this was not an ideologically motivated decision. It appears that the administration was caught with their pants down and had to issue this memorandum in order to justify their actions.
What is most tragic - and telling - is that Marie Stopes was funded to provide HIV prevention services to refugee women in Angola. By targeting Marie Stopes, it is clear that Bush's obsession with appeasing his domestic political base is more important than any true show of "compassionate conservatism."
It is also important to note that just this summer, the Senate voted overwhelmingly to repeal the global gag rule by adopting the Global Democracy Promotion Act authored by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) in a vote of 53-43. Bush's move is clearly a desperate political act to justify defunding basic health services, all for the sake of his ultra-conservative base.
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