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http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/editorialsopinion/134648467_satrdr08.1.html
Saturday, March 08, 2003, 12:00 a.m. Pacific
Day of the women
By Amber Howard
Special to The Times
• Today, no celebrating the rollback on hard-earned rights
Today the world will continue a decades-long tradition of observing International Women's Day. In the past, this day has been a celebration of global progress in women's rights. This year, however, there is not much to celebrate.
Since taking office in 2001, President Bush and his administration have made one policy decision after another that jeopardizes the current state of women, both in the U.S. and the rest of the world.
Over the past two years, President Bush and his administration have:
• Reinstated the global gag rule, cutting off U.S. aid to international family-planning organizations whose services included — but did not use U.S. funds for — informing women of legal abortion options, providing safe and legal abortion options, or lobbying for abortion law reform with their own funds;
• Closed the White House Office for Women's Initiatives and Outreach;
• Removed scientific information from federal Web sites regarding findings that abortions do not increase the risk of breast cancer and about condoms' ability to protect against HIV;
• Appointed ardent "abstinence-only" education supporters to head key health-policy divisions in his administration. Many of these appointees oppose condom use and believe sex outside of marriage is dangerous and that the government should control what local schools can and cannot teach;
• De-funded the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) by withholding $34 million in family-planning aid that is used to better the lives of women around the world;
• Promoted abstinence-only sex education, which fails to teach students about how to protect against sexually transmitted disease;
• Packed the judiciary with anti-choice judges, and;
• Withdrew support for Senate ratification of the International Women's Treaty that requires nations to remove barriers of discrimination against women in areas like legal rights and health care.
And, unfortunately, the list goes on. It is astonishing that this administration has so quickly and easily turned back the clock on women's rights — especially the right to control their family size and protect their health and well-being.
Giving women the power to control when or if they have children is essential to slowing rapid population growth, maintaining healthy children and slowing environmental destruction.
We must ensure that women have access to the information and resources they need to make healthy choices for themselves and their families, which will lead to a better world for us all.
Amber Howard writes from Seattle.