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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
Contact: |
Stacey Freeman Director of Development and Communications (213) 736-4809 |
| PACIFIC INSTITUTE FOR WOMEN'S HEALTH
We raise our voices in opposition to the reinstatement of the Mexico City international family planning policy —the Global Gag Rule—which requires that, in exchange for receipt of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) family planning funds, foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs) agree that they will not use their own funds “to perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning.” Specifically, the Gag Rule prohibits NGOs from using their own funds to:
The Global Gag Rule is not a policy aimed at preventing U.S. public funds from being used for abortion services abroad—that has been prevented since 1973 under the Helms Amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act. Instead, this hypocritical policy prohibits foreign NGOs from spending their own funds on activities that the United States not only constitutionally protects for its own citizens, but advocates for the rest of the world, through our espousal of democratic political processes. Moreover, while today’s Gag Rule is identical to the original 1980s version, the impact is quite different. The world has changed dramatically in the past twenty years: 18 countries have liberalized their abortion laws since the imposition of the original Gag Rule, and the HIV/AIDS pandemic has taken hold with a vengeance, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, where 55 percent of new infections occur among women. As a result, the Gag Rule flies in the face of local laws in many parts of the world, imposing “a U.S. position on abortion” on foreign NGOs, one that reflects neither U.S. law nor U.S. public opinion.
Governments, leading donors institutions and international non-profits all support the integration of family planning and HIV prevention programs as the most economical and effective strategy for improving global public health. The World Health Organization Global Sector Strategy for HIV/AIDS has confirmed that “existing family planning programs provide a clear entry point for the delivery of HIV/AIDS interventions.” The victims of this new attack will be the women for whom integrated services make the difference between life and death. Throughout the 1990s, health professionals and international development specialists supported the implementation of integrated health services across Africa, Latin America and Asia. Integrated services were the most efficient, cost-effective and medically efficacious means of curbing population growth, halting the spread of the HIV/AIDS pandemic and improving the rates of infant and maternal mortality. For many women, family planning clinics are the ideal health facility—and often the only one—offering contraceptive services along with child care immunizations, detection and treatment of sexually-transmitted infections along with counseling and referrals for gender-based violence. It is imperative that such services remain available, accessible and affordable.
Around the world, 210 million women become pregnant each year. Nearly four of every 10 of these pregnancies—84 million—are unplanned. Most couples around the world want to control not only the size of their families, but the timing and the spacing of births. If a couple desires between two and four children, for example, they will have to practice birth control successfully for 16-20 years. Yet for women in most developing countries, access to family planning services and the contraceptive supplies they need is severely limited, because the contraceptives are too expensive, supplies are unavailable or erratic, the quality of care is poor and services are hard to obtain. Each year more than half of these unintended pregnancies—about 50 million—are terminated. Whether they live in Africa, Asia, Latin America or the United States, women cite similar reasons for deciding to have an abortion: they are too young to have a child; they are unemployed or too poor to afford a child; they do not want a child while they are in school; or they are in a difficult, possibly abusive, relationship. Across much of the developing world, women’s ability to control if and when they want to have children is further compromised by their lack of education, limited participation in the labor force, age at marriage, likelihood of being subjected to domestic violence and their status as second-class citizens. About 20 million of these abortions, however, are unsafe, meaning they are performed by unskilled practitioners in unsanitary conditions. Unsafe abortions result in 80,000 maternal deaths and hundreds of thousands of maternal disabilities each year. The vast majority—95 percent—of unsafe abortions take place in developing countries, causing the deaths of more than 200 women each day. In Latin America, as many as 21 percent of maternal deaths are associated with unsafe abortion. Add to this the fact that, in many developing countries, complications of pregnancy and childbirth are the leading cause of death among women aged 15 to 49. More than one woman dies every minute from such causes, about 600,000 women each year. Ninety-nine percent of these deaths are occurring in developing countries. And all of them are preventable. In September 2000, world leaders at the United Nations Millennium Summit agreed to set specific, measurable goals and targets for combating poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation and discrimination against women. The Millennium Development Goals emphasize the need for improved gender equity, increased women’s empowerment, improved maternal health and the reversal of the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015. Women can and must play a vital role in attaining these goals. Women in Southern countries are responsible for their families, primary caretakers for children and the elderly, and managers of material and economic resources. Yet many women are still in need of support, not only to perform these critical duties, but to understand and achieve their rights. The Pacific Institute’s mandate is to enable women to exercise their rights, make informed decisions and demand the reproductive health services they need to achieve full equality. ABOUT THE PACIFIC INSTITUTE FOR WOMEN’S HEALTH The Pacific Institute for Women’s Health improves the sexual and reproductive health and well being of women and girls, locally and globally. The Pacific Institute believes that women’s health is a human right, that access to contraception is central to women’s empowerment and autonomy, and that all women have the right to make informed decisions about their sexual and reproductive health and to access comprehensive services. The Pacific Institute promotes sexual and reproductive health through training and technical assistance to non-governmental organizations serving women and girls of all ages in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and in our local community of Los Angeles. Focus areas include: promotion of new reproductive technologies, such as microbicides and medical abortion; access to contraception, including emergency contraception (EC); access to safe abortion and reduction of unsafe abortion; prevention of sexually-transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS; and reduction of gender-based violence. The Pacific Institute also builds networks—locally, regionally and internationally—among activists, medical practitioners, informal providers, researchers and policy-makers to advance reproductive rights. The North-South collaborative nature of the Pacific Institute’s work emphasizes open communication, avoids duplication, maximizes impact, enhances organizational capacity locally and supports sustainable improvements in sexual and reproductive health and rights. ###
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