Posted on 04/23/2004 1:53:59 PM PDT by Jokelahoma
Nothing like Sunday's “March for Women's Lives” has ever happened before.
This Washington, D.C., event won't just be a U.S. thing like past women's marches. It will unite thousands of people worldwide against Bush administration policies that are hurting women.
Throughout his term, President Bush has continually retreated on women's health and human rights issues. That was the assessment Monday of a press briefing on the march and a special edition of the “Global Women's Issues Scorecard on the Bush Administration.”
The conference call speakers were Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority; Jodi L. Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Health and Gender Equity; and June Zeitlin, executive director of the Women's Environment and Development Organization.
“It's going to be more than a march,” Smeal said. “It's a whole movement to reverse these very restrictive policies.”
Leaders from 53 nations are expected to attend with people from every state and more than 1,400 organizations. The march is being organized by the American Civil Liberties Union, Black Women's Health Imperative, Feminist Majority, National Abortion Rights Action League, National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, Planned Parenthood and National Organization for Women.
Jacobson said, “What the march is doing is really drawing together both the people and the issues in a way that shows the unfortunate solidarity of women in the United States and women abroad in the attacks on their rights and on their basic ability to make healthy reproductive choices.”
Smeal said the Global Women's Scorecard gives the Bush administration a C on rhetoric in international family planning but an F in reality. Bush revived a Reagan-era global gag rule denying financing to international family planning agencies that use any funds for abortion services, counseling or lobbying. That kills free speech for health-care workers and may violate medical ethics, keeping women from knowing lifesaving procedures.
Smeal said the Bush administration policy annually contributes to thousands of deaths of young women from botched and unsafe abortions and may be responsible for needless maternal fatalities.
“Increasingly U.S. family planning money is being used for abstinence-only education,” Smeal said. It's punitive, restrictive and dangerous. Women in America face similar problems.
Jacobson said the Bush administration's abstinence-only policy also was hamstringing U.S. global HIV/AIDS relief and the U.N. population fund. It's limiting women's access to birth control and emergency contraceptives worldwide.
“We are putting in place programs that don't deliver either the services that are needed nor do they address the other factors that increase women's risk such as gender violence,” Jacobson said.
The scorecard also said the Bush administration pushes the interests of pharmaceutical companies favoring brand-name pills instead of the international consensus for fixed-dose generic drugs. At current funding levels they can save four times as many lives.
The scorecard gave the Bush administration a B for rhetoric on Women and the Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief but a D for reality. It gave the White House a D on rhetoric on the U.N. population fund but an F on reality because Bush pulled $34 million Congress had OK'd for population aid to 140 nations. The administration based its decision on the false charge that the U.N. agency funds abortion and supports coerced family practices in China.
“Now we know that President Bush and his administration are opposed to abortion,” Zeitlin said. “What we didn't know is they would read abortion into all kinds of provisions and international documents that refer to family planning. This unilateral and erroneous interpretation of global commitments is a real setback for women worldwide.”
The Bush administration earned a C in rhetoric on women's rights. But the White House has held up Senate ratification of the international treaty formally called the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. It has been adopted by 177 countries. Zeitlin said the White House talks big on women's rights but does nothing, which merits an F for reality.
The march is to awaken people by exposing Bush's abysmal record on women's rights, health and development. Once aware of how women abroad and in this country have been hurt, I hope global, national, state and local decision-makers will respond.
I just pray that it's not too late.
Lewis W. Diuguid is a member of The Star's Editorial Board. To reach him, call (816) 234-4723 or send e-mail to Ldiuguid@kcstar.com.
Lewis Do-Good is at it again. His editorials in Kansas City are always a stroke waiting to happen.
Today, it seems he's upset that those evil Republicans won't pay to kill babies. It's just not fair that people would have to pay money out of their own pocket to murder their babies. I mean, the Declaration of Independence promises that we will be guaranteed "life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and the right to kill our babies any time right up to the moment of birth, even if that means jamming scissors into the base of their skull and sucking out their brains", doesn't it?
I love the fact, however, that the leftists are realizing that "Pro-Choice" is inaccurate, since if a woman exercises her "choice" to NOT have an abortion, they go apoplectic. Instead now, it's "reproductive health". They'll call it anything to hide the fact it's killing.
Oh well. I let Lewis' e-mail and telephone information in this on purpose. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go talk to Lew's mom about how it's now legal to perform abortions up to the 500th trimester, hand her some scissors and a vacuum, and watch what happens next time little Lewie Leftie visits home. Hope he can talk fast! "Lewieeeee... you got some 'splainin' to do... "
Representing literally tens of women from Cambridge, Itahaca, and parts of Berkeley.
Oh, please. I was abstinent until I married. Restrictive I will grant, though I prefer to think of it as "picky". But punitive? It was much more liberating than worrying about birth control, disease control or the etiquette of having a man sleep over. Dangerous? 11 years of dating, and I never once had to worry about date-rape, pregnancy or STDs. Can't say I see the problem here.
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