RCRC - International Family Planning

After Eight Years of Injustice, International Family Planning Funding is Restored

Washington, DC -- After eight years of a policy that contributed to the suffering of women and children worldwide, President Obama has put the United States back on the path of charity, hope and compassion by overturning the Bush administration's global gag rule. Although some political conservatives publicly implored President Obama not to rescind the rule for fear it would rattle pro-lifers, President Obama has reaffirmed that the United States is a caring and humane world citizen and has removed injurious barriers to funding family planning services for some of the world's poorest women.

The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, the national coalition of mainstream religious and religiously affiliated organizations with official pro-choice policies - praises President Obama's executive order repealing the global gag rule. Also known as the Mexico City policy, the rule prohibited American dollars from being granted to foreign family planning clinics unless they agreed not to use their own private, non-U.S. funds for abortion services or counseling. The rule also prohibited organizations from lobbying to reform harmful anti-abortion policies and laws.

Member groups of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice have a heritage of service to underserved and vulnerable communities and a commitment to the well being of families. Denominations including the United Methodist Church, Presbyterian Church (USA), United Church of Christ, the Episcopal Church and the Union for Reform Judaism, among others, have urged the U.S. to support family planning overseas, teaching 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 reproductive health services.

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.

The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice hopes that these orders will be one of many steps the Obama Administration takes to address the reproductive health crisis facing women worldwide.

Family planning clinics provide critical health services to women and families, making it all the more important that they receive support and assistance. Many of these clinics have integrated HIV/AIDS prevention efforts, pre- and post-natal care, and other services into their family planning care.

January 23, 2009

Global Family Planning: Saving Women's and Children's Lives, Improving Family Health

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.