Senate Appropriations Committee Blocks Bush’s Expansion of the Global Gag Rule

Contact:

Kirsten Sherk, Planned Parenthood Federation of America: (202) 973-4864 Email: kirsten.sherk@ppfa.org Brian Dixon, Population Connection: (202) 745-3179 Email: brian@populationconnection.org Kimberley Cline, Population Action International: (202) 557-3423 Email: kcline@popact.org

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September 5, 2003: The Senate Appropriations Committee voted late Thursday to block President Bush's expansion of the global gag rule to all U.S. Department of State programs that provide funding to family planning organizations performing or advocating abortions. The Senate action came in the form of an amendment by Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) to block implementation of the global gag rule as part of the Commerce, Justice, and State Appropriations bill.

President Bush issued an executive memorandum late Friday, August 29 before the Labor Day break that extended the global gag rule to all reproductive health care funds administered by the U.S. Department of State. Previously, the global gag rule applied only to family planning programs administered by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), a division of the State Department. The order excluded agencies that would benefit from the global AIDS initiative.

The expansion of the global gag rule came on the heels of the Bush administration’s withdrawal of funding to the Reproductive Health for Refugees Consortium, which provides reproductive health and HIV prevention services for refugee women. The administration officially withdrew funding for the consortium based on the involvement of Marie Stopes International (MSI). The State Department said it believed MSI supports involuntary abortions and sterilizations in China. MSI works in China with UNFPA, United Nation’s Population Fund, which the State Department claimed, violated the Kemp Kasten amendment, although its own fact-finding team reported no such violation. MSI offers abortion counseling and services, but the State Department said they had no evidence MSI supported forced abortions. There was neither an investigation into purported violations by MSI, nor a legal memorandum justifying defunding the consortium by the State Department. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) publicly exposed Bush’s decision as politically motivated at the expense of women’s health and rights.

In July, the Senate voted overwhelmingly to repeal the global gag rule in an amendment to the State Department Authorization bill for spending and foreign assistance programs for the budget year beginning October 1. The House version of the bill contains no such provisions.

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