Marilyn Hempel
THE OTHER WAR
While the American military prepares for war with Iraq, the President's political troops at home are quietly targeting reproductive health rights. A woman's fundamental right to make her own childbearing decisions is under assault by the Bush administration. Recent editorials in the New York Times have called attention to this "other war."
On January 12, 2003, the Times declared, "President Bush's assault on reproductive rights is part of a larger ongoing cultural battle. If abortion were the only target, the administration would not be attempting to block women's access to contraceptives, which drive down the number of abortions. His administration would not be declaring war on any sex education that discusses ways, beyond abstinence, to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. Scientifically accurate information about contraceptives and abortion would not have begun disappearing from federal government Web sites."
A few additional examples of the "other war" will illustrate why the architects of this campaign choose to hide behind the war on terrorism.
- Bush reimposed the "global gag rule" on his first day in the White House. The rule denies U.S. family planning assistance to health providers who include information about abortion at their own cost when counseling women. The rule shows a disdain for freedom of speech, not to mention utter contempt for international family planning programs that prevent hundreds of thousands of infant and maternal deaths each year.
- U.S. delegates to the United Nations Special Session on Children attacked language promising "reproductive health services" as a way to promote the well-being and rights of teenagers. They also opposed efforts to provide girls victimized by war crimes of rape with information about emergency contraception and abortion.
- The President has refused to release millions of dollars Congress approved for valuable programs run by the World Health Organization and the United Nations Population Fund to advance reproductive health and combat AIDS.
- At a recent UN population conference in Bangkok, the American delegation embarrassed itself in front of an aghast world audience by demanding the deletion of references to "condom use" to fight AIDS and sexual diseases, claiming that condom use causes more sexual activity.
- On the Web site of the Centers for Disease Control, a fact sheet about condoms was trashed and replaced by one that focused on their lack of reliability.
Such "fact" sheets fly in the face of science. Condoms are not perfect, but they greatly reduce the risk of AIDS. A University of California study found condom use costs just $3.50 per year of life saved. Antiretroviral treatments cost almost $1,050 and full-blown AIDS treatments cost far more. Yet the U.S. is now distributing only 300 million condoms annually, compared with about 800 million at the end of the first President Bush's term. Only a person who believes that umbrellas cause rain could believe that condoms cause sex.
"The Bush administration position basically condemns people to death . . ." said Adrienne Germain, president of the International Women's Health Coalition. "And we're talking about tens of millions of people."
Sources: The New York Times editorials, January 10, 2003, January 12, 2003.
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