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President's 'gag rule' restricts family planning funding

Date 4/1/2004 12:00 AM | Topic: Opinion

Women have come a long way. However, the agenda that the Bush administration has in mind has the potential to bring our process of liberation to a sudden halt.

This is the time for us to engage in heavy debates on the many institutions that hinder our full liberation, such as the "global gag rule."

The global gag rule is a U.S. policy that denies foreign organizations receiving U.S. family planning assistance the right to use their non-U.S. funds to either engage in public policy debates or perform legal abortions.

The Reagan administration at the 1984 United Nations International Conference in Mexico City initially declared the global gag rule. This policy remained until 1993, when the Clinton administration repealed it.

On his first day in office, President George Bush reinstated it.

U.S. law and policy has successfully ensured that no U.S. taxpayers' funds pay for overseas abortions. Yet this administration still insists on confusing family planning services with abortion.

The gag rule would be unconstitutional if applied domestically, because it conditions the eligibility of U.S.-based organizations for federal funds on a requirement that the organizations capitulate their rights to use their own funds to contribute to the political process.

Additionally, this gag rule restricts foreign, non-governmental organizations from engaging in activities that are legal in their own countries, as well as the United States.

In January 2003, Bush promised, "a comprehensive plan [to] prevent seven million new HIV infections."

While many were optimistic about this proclamation, others met it with skepticism due to the fact that AIDS prevention depends on effective promotion of safe sex, which is clearly an area of contention for the Bush administration.

In early February 2003, the administration announced that U.S. funding for global HIV/AIDS programs would be encumbered by restrictions aimed at separating "family planning" from "HIV prevention" in developing countries.

This means that the global gag rule would also be applied to all integrated family planning and HIV prevention programs.

Similar to evidence from the Reagan gag rule, this policy is likely to reduce women's access to contraception and lead to more unwanted, high-risk pregnancies, more unsafe abortions, and more maternal illness, injury and death.

The further inclusion of HIV prevention programs on the global gag agenda will have detrimental results affecting the many millions infected and at high risk of infection in the two-thirds world.

In an article titled, "Women, HIV and the Global Gag Rule: The Dis-Integration of U.S. Global AIDS Funding," published by the Center for Health and Gender Equity, Jodi Jacobson rightly states that "for the past two years, President Bush has been waging what can only be called a religious war on sexual and reproductive health programs both home and abroad."

This administration's pattern of slashing funds for sex education and family planning, undercutting the actual foundations on which prevention strategies are built, has been applied domestically as well.

This administration has been promoting "abstinence only" sex education programs domestically and internationally. This option alone is irrelevant and unrealistic on a global scale and if pursued, it will have detrimental results for the lives of women.

This "gag" rule must not silence us, because as Audre Lorde points out, "the silence will not protect you."

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Danai Mupotsa

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