Overturning the Global Gag Rule

Tomorrow morning the House Foreign Affairs Committee is holding a hearing on the so-called Mexico City policy. Also known as the Global Gag Rule, it places restrictions on health care workers overseas that they would never have to face if they were based in the United States. The hearing will feature witnesses who are experts in the field, with first-hand knowledge about the destructive effects of these restrictions on women's health around the world.

Under the Global Gag Rule, if NGOs in developing countries spend one dime on any service remotely related to abortion, they are punished with the loss of U.S. funding. If a pregnant woman shows up at their doorstep, these organizations cannot even advise her that abortion is an option.

Ignorance about the availability of safe and legal abortions will do nothing to bring down the number of abortions performed. Quite the opposite -- as our witnesses tomorrow will describe in detail, a combination of restrictive access to contraception and limited information about women's options is creating tens of thousands of unwanted pregnancies among the world's poor. It is driving up the number of women's deaths caused by complications from unsafe abortions. We need to put a stop to these needless tragedies.

The Global Gag Rule, a Reagan-era policy that was abandoned during the Clinton Administration, was reinstated by the current president at the start of 2001. The sooner we change it, the better for everyone concerned. Our hearing is only a first step. We will work closely with leaders in the pro-choice community to overturn the Global Gag Rule, a deeply misguided and dangerous policy.

Comments

[Merg]

Oh by the way. If you would please pass the word to other sites it would help.

[Merg]

OK folks, this is where I need your help. There is and upcoming Republican debate in Florida this month televised and sponsored by CNN/YouTube. It is going to be like the one done with the Democrats with MSNBC/YouTube where there were Video questions from 'averge citizens to the candidates. I understand that the Repugs are quite freaked out about it.
I don't have a video attachment to my computor yet but, even better this is what i would like to see happen and it is my hope that as many of you as possible will help me.
I would like to ask theses candidates who support a constitutional ammendent banning abortion to state very specifically "what should be the punishment/prison term for a women convicted of having and illegal abortion. I want to put them on the spot in front of a national audience and watch them squirm. I want to see the publics reaction to the thought of a women, their co-worker, their neighbor going to jail for this 'crime. If that doesn't put this thing in perspective I don't know what will. Use your own words/format.
So, Will some (or all) of you make this kind of tape and send it in to CNN. They are soliciting submissions. Check out their site. I a positive if they get enough of these, they will run with it. It will make for riviting Television. Pass the popcorn

[EnderCraig]

The religeous righteous sleep well at night while withholding education and medical care from foreigners and illegal immigrants? (Some crazies want to keep illegal immigrant children from access to emergency rooms!)
Real americans aren't afraid of ideas. Some are misguided and some are wrong, but freedom means not being kept from the truth. REALITY is for us to judge. Omitting truth is decite. And no matter how much you refer to jesus its not going to change challanges of these cultures we want to help. Only TRUTH and education is going to help them realize the importance of population and birth control.
It reminds me of the way southern whites treated their slaves. Keep them ignorant to keep them under control and insist they are inferior to justify it.
Maybe when making population changing decisions, the administration should consult a sociologist instead of a baptist.

[TommyMcCarthy]

This is one of many absurdities than can and will be overturned by executive order in the coming Democratic administration........tm

[OhgReaTone]

Abortion is a complicated issues. To the moral extremists on the left and the right it is simple - they are wrong.It is the least desirable, most expensive, and most dangerous form of birth control.
Ohg
Link to Fireside Abortion Article

[schatsie]

Great article!

Of course everyone knows who has read the second chapter of BackLash, should have known this was coming. This was the very first thing that this president did and should have been a warning to the media that Bush was out of control then. Our media has sold us down the river and then some!!!

Huffington Post deserves a great thank you!!!

[SandScripts]

Look at how many poor, uneducated people W. and this cruel policy has created for the global corporate giants to exploit in their slave factories, not to mention more people to escape their plight in the countries to the south of us and come here.

What the poor bastards don't realize that if things keep going the way they are, soon...too soon...we will be them.

[fedupwithpolitics]

Lantos thinks that his "pro-choice" position will endear him to democrats, but he is pro-death when it comes to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. His fanatical AIPAC position literally guarantees death to many innocent Palestinian women and children. Lantos can't hide behind abortion rights when he is so anti-human life if that life is Muslim.

[realitytrumpsbull]

Remember, wherever NGO, there you are...this
is the ethos that Focus On The Right-Wing Bible Nazi has brought us to....birth control etc. is the devil...and thus we march on towards 6.7
billion people, then 7, then 8...but the food
and water supplies run short of all that,
so that rich people in poor countries can collect money from poor people in rich countries
and build skyscrapers etc...

[RegKipling]

What caring progenitor would want to bring a child into /this/ world? But seriously, this is not news . We know the admin's stand on this issue. It's one of the few things they haven't shifted ground on - probably because this ground can't move and it doesn't spin sugar except with what 43 calls his "base".

[jwb]

And if you are successful in passing the bill, and if you are successful in overriding the likely veto, the will be the inevitable signing statement stating that he will ignore the law.

[roald]

jwb - I agree with your assessment on what will happen. On the other hand, I would like to see as much documentation as possible to demonstrate that we have not given up. In the short term, it may lead to people speaking out. In the long term and with the hope that we survive, future historians should have this information to prevent it from happening again.

[TWOSHORT]

G Warming or N winter we need a change! obama 08

[psk]

It is not just abortion that is under the so called gag rule, but all forms of birth control. Charity controlled by strict religious views of a few is not much in the way of help when it puts women and children at risk.

Condoms, to help prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS are even considered a no-no in most cases. Abstain, abstain, abstain is the word preached to all.

The world"s very poor do not need more children they cannot feed, clothe or house, not to mention afford to educate so they might have a chance at a better life. Life is difficult at best, do we really need to place so many restrictions and strings on our aid given to the poor?

[DamienPatrick]

If you want to see precisely what kind of impact the Global Gag rule is having on one country in particular, Ethiopia, watch this YouTube video. It's a disturbing testament about the kind of devestating impact we are having on the lives of others.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4wrmweSdGg

[NotaBeliever]

I wish you all the luck in the world in trying to overturn this "global gag rule." I wish you luck in defying the wishes of the Bush administration, which seems to get "his" way, no matter what. He gets to keep his war going, long after it is shown to be wrong on every conceivable level. He gets to ignore children's health. He gets to saddle our schools with No Child Left Behind. He and his minions get to unravel the threads that hold our nation together, denying the worth of Constitutional principles once considered inviolate.
So good luck with the global gag rule thing. We wish you well. We don't anticipate success in your venture, but we wish you well.

[TWOSHORT]

N Winter or G Warming