Saving Women's and Children's Lives,
Improving Family Health
Washington, DC, March 8, 2006
Leaders of major American religions today decried the Bush
Administration’s proposed $79 million cut in U.S. assistance
for international family planning programs and called on Congress
to support increased funding for these programs. They spoke
at an International Women’s Day event at the United
Methodist Building in Washington coordinated by the Religious
Coalition for Reproductive Choice. Special guests were Representative
Betty McCollum (D-MN), chief sponsor of the Focus on Family
Health Worldwide Act (HR 4188), a bipartisan approach to meeting
the critical family planning needs of the world’s poorest
families, and Representative Jim Ramstad (R-MN), a co-sponsor
of the bill. HR 4188 will increase funding to help make contraceptive
methods and information more readily available in local communities
and help train persons who are a key source of information
and support for family planning. The bill would also help
build stronger links between programs for voluntary family
planning and HIV/AIDS prevention. The bill's sponsors are
seeking an increase in the U.S. investment in international
family to $600 million in Fiscal Year 2007 and then an additional
$100 million annually over the next four years, reaching $1
billion in FY 2001.
The bill will expand access to voluntary family planning
and modern contraceptives to:
- Reduce maternal and child mortality in the world's poorest
countries
- Meet the needs of couples who want to achieve their desired
family size
- Reduce unintended pregnancies and abortions
- Reducee the incidence of HIV transmission from mother-to-child
while helping HIV-positive women remain healthier longer
- Reduce pressure on natural resources like water, agricultural
lands and forests in countries where rapid population growth
results in hunger, poverty and instability.
The clergypersons affirmed their faith traditions’
commitment to women’s health as a core religious value.
The Right Reverend Jane Holmes Dixon, retired
Episcopal Bishop of Washington, said that “international
family planning, maternal health, and child survival programs
have been cut to their lowest levels in years. This is a disgrace
for a country that prides itself on its generosity to those
in need and its commitment to the fundamental dignity and
equality of every human being…”
More than 500,000 women in developing countries die each
year from pregnancy-related causes, and 8 million more suffer
serious complications, often due to pregnancies that occur
at a young age or are too closely spaced. Each year, approximately
10.8 million children under the age of five die, frequently
from low birth-weight or other causes related to complications
in pregnancy.
Rabbi Scott Sperling, Director of the Union for Reform
Judaism Mid-Atlantic Council, said funding and legislation
to strengthen women’s health services is in the best
tradition of Judaism’s life-affirming values. “For
over 40 years, the United States has included family planning
services as part of the aid we provide in the developing world.
We know that our support for family planning information and
services is critically important in reducing maternal and
infant deaths, and preventing abortions…We must decide
to act upon the words of Deuteronomy 30:19, ‘…I
have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing;
therefore choose life, that both you and your seed may live.’”
The Reverend Susan Andrews, former moderator of the
Presbyterian Church (USA) and pastor of Bradley Hills
Presbyterian Church in Bethesda, Maryland, referred to a history
of PCUSA General Assembly resolutions in support of comprehensive
family planning programs in developing nations, noting that
family planning “does not encourage abortion”
and calling on President Bush to release U.S. funds designated
for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
The United Methodist Church issued a statement
to mark the day that said, in part:
“The United Methodist Church has stood in solidarity
with women around the world and has been a long-standing supporter
of equal rights for women in church and society. The denomination
advocates for the availability and accessibility of health
care, family planning and reproductive health services and
supports full, comprehensive sex education. Additionally,
the UMC supports equal access to education and leadership
opportunities for women.”
The United Church of Christ Justice and Witness Ministries’ statement said, in part:
“When women have greater control over their lives, including
deciding when and how many children to bring in to the world,
their families are stronger and are more likely to be financial
secure. The refusal of this administration to release funds
for international family planning jeopardizes the lives of
women and children around the world and leads to an increased
rate of abortion and deaths which result from unsafe pregnancy
termination.”
The Unitarian Universalist Association’s
statement, issued by Robert C. Keithan, Director of the Washington
Office for Advocacy said, in part:
“Our Association affirms the right of women to equitable
and comprehensive health care, including access to information
and resources for family planning. Providing women with these
services—especially in low-income areas of the world—has
significant positive effects on the whole community, because
women are often the key to child and family health.”
Impact of Global Gag Rule on the World's Poorest
Women
The member groups of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive
Choice (RCRC) have a heritage of service to the sick and vulnerable
and a commitment to the well being of families. Many religions
teach that wealthier groups and nations have a special responsibility
to help and care for persons in the poorer countries of the
world, which includes support for the basic health services
of family planning, reproductive care, and pre- and post-natal
care.
In the United States, many religious denominations and leaders
are anguished over the U.S. government’s repeated denial
of funds to international family planning service providers
that provide information about the option of abortion. The
following examples illustrate of religious concern about U.S.
actions:
The general secretary of the United Methodist Church’s
General Board of Church and Society wrote to President George
W. Bush regarding the “global gag rule” in 2001:
“You have imposed on the poorest women of the world
a halt to information that women in the United States are
guaranteed. The poorest women and men around the globe will
no longer have access to basic means ‘to limit their
fertility’ as The Social Principles (of the United
Methodist Church) affirm, or to safely plan pregnancies
to enhance the potential that both mothers and their babies
will thrive.”
The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, in a 2002
statement urging funding the UNFPA, said that “the
concept of pikuah nefesh (i.e., danger to one’s life)
and the prevention of disease were religious values clearly
articulated in Jewish sources…Funding UNFPA (United
Nations Population Fund, a provider of contraception and
birth control in poorer countries) is essential to the lives
of women and children all over the world.”
The Presbyterian Church (USA) 208th General Assembly in
1996 approved a policy urging “all governments together
with donor agencies to broaden the availability and the
scope of family planning services…” and opposing
“policies that restrict information about and availability
of contraceptive and reproductive health measures for religious
or political reasons….”
Why the Global Gag Rule Is Harmful
One of George W. Bush’s first official acts as president
in 2001 was to reinstate the “global gag rule.”
Also known as the “Mexico City policy,” the rule
prohibits U.S. funds to foreign family planning clinics unless
they agree not to use their own private, non-U.S. funds for
abortion services or counseling. Ironically, the use of U.S.
funds by such agencies for abortion services has long been
prohibited.
The rule also prohibits the organizations from lobbying to
improve abortion services and, where abortion is illegal,
to make services legal and therefore safe.
Clinics that provide family planning services also provide
many other health services, making it all the more important
that they receive support and assistance. Oftentimes, these
clinics are the only health care facility on the front lines
to combat HIV and AIDS. Many of these clinics have integrated
their traditional family planning services with HIV/AIDS prevention
efforts, recognizing both as essential components of reproductive
health care.
Some clinics that choose not to comply with the U.S. policy
have been forced to cut funding and services – which
is directly impacting the health of women and girls in developing
nations. Because of anti-abortion politics in the United States,
women in the poorest countries of the world are losing access
to the basic care they need to preserve their reproductive
health.
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