Congressional Battle Over International Family Planning Heats Up
Mon, May 2, 2011 
It is today a full-time research job to track the attacks on women’s health worldwide, resulting from the Republican War on Women, which flourished during the last Bush administration and is now in high gear. Proponents are on record, voting to let the mother die in every circumstance — even in the emergency rooms of America’s hospitals, if a legal abortion is required to save her life.
While we fight the Republican War on Women in America, many thinking people are very concerned about the aggressive attacks on women moving into the international family planning arena, which is code word for abortion among Conservatives.
International Family Planning $ Cut 5% in 2011
The focus of Isobel Coleman’s ‘expert brief’ in Foreign Policy magazine, Family Planning and US Foreign Policy is the fact that — for the 2011 budget — the final allocation to international family planning was pushed back against Republicans wanting to decimate the budget. Programs suffered a 5 percent decrease from $648 million in 2010 to $615 for 2011.
Republican Representative Bob Latta from Ohio introduced bill No. 262, which would have eliminated all $440 million US support for family planning worldwide. Ironically, Rep Latta is very concerned about preserving bald eagles and support penalties for the illegal taking of game in the state. It’s good to understand a man’s priorities.
The battle over international family planning will begin all over again in weeks. Previously the refusal to provide even condoms for women living in Africa and at great risk to contracting AIDS was a battle over Vatican policy that commands no birth control.
High Birth Rates | Terrorism and Political Instability
As Coleman reasons, if Conservatives can’t support family planning dollars as a concern for maternal health, they should understand the risks to national security. The US military is on record saying that the empowerment of women globally is key to America’s security.
Empowerment implies control over sexual reproduction, which is exactly what social policy Conservatives don’t want for women. The women should obey their husbands because this is the natural order of life as ordained by God. President George W Bush reversed significant initiatives in place under the Clinton administration that advanced women’s health internationally.
Just like women in America, Conservatives are taking women backwards internationally. This is their strategic game plan.
Reality is that ‘eighty percent of all outbreaks of civil conflict between 1970 and 2007 occurred in countries with very young populations. Demographers have shown that the statistical likelihood of civil conflict consistently decreases as countries’ birth rates decline.’
Countries with the highest population growth rates face real resource constraints, particularly arable land and clean water. As of 2010, 40 percent of populations in more than thirty five countries have insufficient access to food, with the largest concentration in central and eastern sub-Saharan Africa. Given that many of these food-insecure countries will continue to experience significant population growth in decades ahead, malnutrition will remain a challenge.
It is one thing for Republicans to declare war on women in America. But to carry their insane agenda globally makes no sense, because it ultimately puts America at risk to terrorism. Outgoing Defense Secretary Robert Gates embraces this view, as does Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Personally, I don’t know how the men and a few women who support the withdrawal of support for international family planning look at themselves in the mirror at night. I do not believe that God looks kindly on them for one moment. Their actions are inhumane in every aspect. Anne
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