[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 8 (Tuesday, January 23, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Page S450]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     BUSH ADMINISTRATION DECISION ON INTERNATIONAL FAMILY PLANNING

  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, I rise today to express my 
disappointment that President Bush chose yesterday to announce that as 
his first major policy action since becoming President he is 
reinstating the ``global gag rule'' restricting United States 
assistance to international family planning organizations.
  There have been few issues in recent years that have been more 
debated, with people of good intention on both sides of the issue, and 
I am dismayed that the President has opted to start his Administration 
with such a divisive action.
  The world now has more than 6 billion people. The United Nations 
estimates this figure could be 12 billion by the year 2050. Almost all 
of this growth will occur in the places least able to bear up under the 
pressures of massive population increases. The brunt of this decision 
will be felt not in the United States but in developing countries 
lacking the resources needed to provide basic health or education 
services.
  If women are to be able to better their own lives and the lives of 
their families, they must have access to the educational and medical 
resources needed to control their reproductive destinies and their 
health.
  In fact, international family planning programs reduce poverty, 
improve health and raise living standards around the world; they 
enhance the ability of couples and individuals to determine the number 
and spacing of their children.
  Under the leadership of both Democratic and Republican Presidents, 
and under Congresses controlled by Democrats and Republicans alike, the 
United States has established a long and distinguished record of world 
leadership on international family planning and reproductive health 
issues.
  Unfortunately, in recent years these programs have come under 
increasing partisan attack by the anti-choice wing of the Republican 
party--despite the fact that no U.S. international family planning 
funds are spent on international abortion.
  I do not expect President Bush to change his mind. He is the 
President, and, under legislation passed by the last Congress it is now 
his prerogative to determine how U.S. international family planning 
assistance will be used.
  But I would ask him, and his advisors, to think long and hard about 
this decision, about how this decision squares with ``humble'' U.S. 
leadership of the international community and our commitment to help 
those around the world who need and want our help and assistance.
  I would ask the women of America, as they consider their own 
reproductive rights, to consider the aim and intent of a policy in 
which the reproductive rights of American women are approached one way, 
and those of women in the developing world another.
  And I would ask my colleagues on both sides of the aisle who feel as 
strongly about this issue as I do to consider what legislative remedies 
and options we may have available to address this decision.
  Mr. President, it had been my sincere hope that under President Bush 
international family planning would have been an issue that Republicans 
and Democrats, the Administration and Congress, could have worked on 
together, in a bipartisan fashion.
  It is with no small amount of regret that I say that that no longer 
appears to be the case.

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