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Bush shouldn't re-impose a family-planning condition
Saturday, January 20, 2001
Two days after President Clinton assumed office in 1993, he got rid of a presidential "gag rule" that prohibited international family planning agencies from using U.S. funds if they advocated or lobbied on the issue of abortion. President-elect Bush is being urged to move just as quickly to reimpose the rule. He should leave well enough alone.
Organizations that believe women should have the right to choose abortion are also sometimes the only source for gynecological exams, contraception counseling and pre- and postnatal care for women in remote areas around the world.
By law, U.S. money cannot be used to perform abortions. The question is whether groups that lobby to legalize abortions will be cut off from U.S. dollars that help pay for contraceptives and health care.
Those dollars allow women to space the children they will have; they increase the likelihood that mother and baby will survive labor and childbirth; they reduce the number of unintended pregnancies (and thus the number of abortions); they help curb the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. They save lives.
Symbolism aside, restricting funds for family planning agencies is anything but pro-life.