Restricting Family Planning
By manipulating information and exploiting international aid relationships, Bush is imposing abstinence-only family planning worldwide. October 2002: Medically accurate information removed from national official website. Officials appointed to the National Institute of Health (NIH) by Bush removed the National Cancer Institute’s scientific findings that abortions do not increase risk of breast cancer. The NIH and Center for Disease Control (CDC) also removed fact sheets on condom effectiveness and a sexuality education curriculum. These actions correspond with Bush’s concerted efforts to ensure an abstinence-only educational curriculum. During the months of November and December 2002, the NIH and CDC posted inaccurate versions of the condom fact sheet and false correlations between breast cancer and abortion on national websites, demonstrating Bush’s willingness to elevate right-wing ideology above the best interests of American people. October 2002: Bush withholds millions from World Health Organization (WHO) due to Anti-Choice lobbying. Bush is promoting his anti-choice agenda through careful manipulation of the WHO by withholding a crucial $3 million in contributions to the organization. Bush made this decision after anti-choice activists objected to the WHO’s Human Reproduction Program, a project using non-U.S. funds to study mifepristone (also known as RU-486). July 22, 2002: Bush withdraws millions in funding for birth control, maternal and child health care, and HIV/AIDS prevention from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Bush withheld $34 million from UNFPA, an organization promoting birth control and reproductive health services in almost 150 countries worldwide. Bush withheld the funding citing concerns that UNFPA’a work in China supports forced abortion and sterilization procedures, despite a taxpayer-funded report demonstrating that UNFPA’s work in China does not support forced abortion and sterilization procedures and testimony by Secretary of State Colin Powell affirming UNFPA’s “invaluable” work. May 2002: Bush sends anti-choice delegates to U.N. Children’s Summit. U.S. delegates to the U.N. Children’s Summit overturned prior agreements establishing teens’ rights to sexuality education, blocking a global consensus on a plan to promote children’s welfare. Focused on establishing abstinence-only education in the global community, the U.S. delegates also opposed the distribution of condoms to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS. In addition, the U.S. delegates blocked programs providing support to female victims of war crimes over concerns that rape survivors might receive emergency contraception or abortion services. January 22, 2001: Bush reinstates the global gag rule. Bush’s first act in office was to reinstate the global gag rule, also known as the “Mexico City policy,” first instituted by the Reagan administration. This executive order prevents any international organization that provides abortion counseling or referrals or provides abortions, from receiving U.S. aid, even if only non-U.S. dollars are used to provide abortion services. This policy gags free speech and threatens the lives of women around the world.
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