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Bush Blocks Funds To Organizations Advocating Abortion
WASHINGTON Jan 22 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - In one of his earliest presidential decisions, new U.S. President George W. Bush is expected to issue an executive order blocking U.S. funds given to overseas family planning organizations if they are found to be advocating abortion rights.
During Bush's first lunch with the Republican committee members in the White House, Bush affirmatively answered reporters' questions about his intentions to go on with the executive order.
The order comes as pro-choice advocates and American women organizations are celebrating the twenty-eighth anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized a woman's right in the U.S. to an abortion if they choose.
"Thousands of women will die each year from illegal abortions because President Bush, who lost the popular vote, needs to curry favor with the religious right. It is a malicious affront to women to gag advocates for their health on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade," said Janet Benshoof, president of the Center For Reproductive Law and Policy, a legal advocacy organization that works to support women's reproductive rights around the world.
Pro-life protestors also celebrated the anniversary rallying here on the Ellipse just south of the White House. Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) led them in a prayer before the group spilled out onto Constitution Avenue for an annual protest march to the Supreme Court.
In a written statement to the gathering crowd, and read by Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ), Bush said, "Two days ago, Americans gathered on the Washington Mall to celebrate our nation's ideals. Today, you are gathered to remind our country that one of those ideals is the infinite value of every life."
Blocking and restoring funds for family planning have been rocking back and forth between Republican and Democrat presidents. Recently, it had been blocked by former Republican Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush, the elder, but was restored on former President Clinton's second day in office in early 1993.
The U.S. has been a supporter of international family planning and population assistance since the 1960s. However, in 1984, the Reagan Administration imposed restrictions on U.S. funding for international family planning.
The so-called "Mexico City Policy" prohibited overseas non-governmental organizations (NGO) from receiving U.S. funds if, with their own funds, and in accordance with the laws of their own countries, they performed, or actively promoted, abortion as a method of family planning.
During the Reagan administration, further regulations interpreted the phrase "abortion as a method of family planning" to mean all abortions, except when performed in cases of rape, incest, or when the life (but not the health) of the woman would be endangered if the fetus was carried to term.
Abortion is an issue that has historically been fiercely debated throughout election campaigns between Democrats and Republicans. Most women's organizations had supported Al Gore in part for his position on the issue.
Several organizations demonstrated during the long Florida recount dispute in opposition to Bush in front of the Florida Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington.
The nomination of John Ashcroft, who holds staunch pro-life positions, to the office of the U.S. General Attorney, aggravated abortion supporters even more, as they felt that it signaled a significant dismantling of women's rights under current Republican President Bush.
Bush is also expected to review several other family planning-related regulations.
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