This US bill will hurt the world's poorest women
Republicans are pushing through a bill that would reimpose a 'global gag', stopping NGOs from talking about abortion
Yvonne Singh guardian.co.uk,
Monday 7 March 2011 16.51 GMT
On Tuesday 8 March, the 100th anniversary of international women's day, more than a thousand activists will be attending a rally on Washington's Capitol Hill as part of a global round of celebratory activities, demanding a better future for some of the world's poorest women.
With the spotlight placed firmly on women's rights, it's ironic that Republicans in the House of Representatives have chosen this moment to push through a resolution (19 February), which will, if it becomes law, have a devastating impact on women's health and reproductive rights in the developing world, as well as affect some of the poorest and most vulnerable women in the US.
Part of a package that Nancy Northup, the president of the Centre for Reproductive Rights, has termed "the most vicious attack on women's health and rights in several decades", the bill includes cutting funding to the Title X family-planning programme – affecting low-income families' access to contraception and sexual health services in the US – and in an international context, it is also demanding the reimposition of the hated "global gag" rule.
This draconian edict, forged by Ronald Reagan, stripped USAID funding from international NGOs that dared to convey any information about abortion, along with other aspects of family planning, such as contraception and HIV/Aids prevention, to the communities they worked in. Since Reagan imposed the gag in 1984, it has become the proverbial political football; overturned by the Clinton administration in 1993, reimposed by Bush in 2001 and rescinded by Obama in 2009.
More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/mar/07/us-women-republicans-global-gag-abortion