PHA-Exchange> [afro-nets] U.S. Cuts Funds for Family Planning Overseas

[Claudio Schuftan]

U.S. Cuts Funds for Family Planning Overseas - Stirring Opposition
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NEW YORK TIMES
February 15, 2006

By CELIA W. DUGGER

WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 - President Bush, who acted on his first
full day in office five years ago to deny federal aid to over-
seas groups that help women obtain abortions, is for the first
time proposing sharp cuts in financing for international family
planning programs that the White House had described as one of
the best ways to prevent abortion.

Since 2001, the administration had adhered to Mr. Bush's commit-
ment to maintain the financing of such programs at $425 million,
the same level as in the last year of the Clinton administra-
tion.

But in the president's new budget proposal, financing would fall
18 percent, from $436 million this year to $357 million.

The cuts are stirring strong opposition from nonprofit groups
and Democrats on the House and Senate appropriations subcommit-
tees responsible for foreign aid. They say the reductions would
mean more unintended pregnancies for the world's poorest women,
and more dangerous abortions in countries where the procedure is
outlawed.

"It's ironic that an administration outwardly committed to re-
ducing the incidence of abortion would take away valuable tools
for preventing unwanted pregnancies," said Representative Nita
M. Lowey, Democrat of New York.

Ed Fox, an assistant administrator at the United States Agency
for International Development, said the budget cuts for family
planning should be viewed in the broader context of large pro-
posed increases for presidential initiatives to combat AIDS and
malaria that will greatly benefit women.

He also pointed to a $21 million program to help African women
combat sexual violence.

"This is a much better budget than we've had in the past for
women's health," he said.

The extent of the reductions for family planning became apparent
only this week when Mr. Fox provided an overall estimate of fi-
nancing from "all spigots" in both the State Department and
A.I.D. budgets - a figure requested Wednesday. The budget re-
leased Feb. 6 contained clues to the decline in financing but
not the total number.

The disagreement over Mr. Bush's approach to family planning
services in developing countries dates back to one of his first
acts as president. On Jan. 22, 2001, he reinstated a Reagan-era
rule that prohibited the financing of groups that provided abor-
tion services, counseled women about abortion or advocated for
the legalization of abortion.

Critics of this policy called it the "gag rule" because it pe-
nalized groups that pushed for changes in laws.

The International Planned Parenthood Federation, with membership
associations in 151 countries, lost an estimated $15 million a
year in federal financing because it refused to comply, said its
director general, Dr. Steven W. Sinding.

Just last week, on the same day the president's budget was in-
troduced, the British development agency announced a global pro-
gram for safe abortion, pledging about $4.5 million to Planned
Parenthood to carry it out.

In a news release, the agency said the funds were intended to
"support work on abortion that has suffered or been neglected as
a result of the Global Gag Rule."

Even as the abortion debate raged, the administration had stuck
to a commitment the president made the same day he reinstated
the Reagan-era rule.

A White House news release said President Bush would maintain
the $425 million financing level because he knew family planning
services were "one of the best ways to prevent abortion." 
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