[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 57 (Thursday, April 29, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Page S4682]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        MARCH FOR WOMEN'S LIVES

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, last Sunday, April 25, the March for 
Women's Lives took place here in Washington. Its organizers estimated 
that more than a million men, women, and children from more than 57 
countries gathered under the banner of reproductive rights, health, and 
justice for all women. Participants called on Congress and the 
administration not only to protect the right to choose but also to 
protect and promote family planning, maternal and child health care, 
and the empowerment of women in the United States and abroad.
  An op-ed by Werner Fornos, president of the Population Institute, 
appeared that same day in the Chicago Sun-Times. The piece was entitled 
``March is About More than Abortion,'' and it explained that the 
marchers' concerns went beyond the issue of abortion to include 
concerns about HIV/AIDS prevention, family planning, the President's 
imposition of a global gag rule on family planning providers, and the 
administration's refusal to release funds to the United Nations 
Population Fund to reduce the number of unintended pregnancies that can 
lead to abortion.
  I ask unanimous consent that Mr. Fornos' article be printed in the 
Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

              [From the Chicago Sun-Times, Apr. 25, 2004]

                   March Is About More Than Abortion

                           (By Werner Fornos)

       Passing a barbershop window in Juneau, Alaska, the other 
     day, I spotted a placard inviting locals to join a rally in 
     Washington, D.C., today that could have significant 
     implications for the November presidential and congressional 
     elections.
       If people from as far away as our country's northwestern-
     most state converge upon the nation's capital in sufficient 
     numbers--say, a quarter of a million and upwards--it might be 
     time for President Bush and his political guru, Karl Rove, to 
     unbutton their collars and reach for the hyperventilation 
     bags. The performance of the Bush administration on women's 
     rights may be judged more by the turnout for this event than 
     by any poll or survey.
       The purpose of the March for Women's Lives is to deliver to 
     our national leaders a strong, unequivocal message of support 
     for reproductive health and rights and justice for all women.
       There are concerns well beyond those of hard-core feminists 
     that Bush administration policies are unduly influenced by 
     right-wing religious zealots and the Vatican, who oppose 
     modern contraceptives as well as abortion.
       Much of this rising tide of reaction emanates from pro-
     choice advocates infuriated by the refusal of the White House 
     and a Republican majority in Congress to acknowledge federal 
     law pronouncing abortion as a matter between a woman, her 
     conscience and her physician. But the march is about more 
     than the termination of pregnancies.
       For example, a fact sheet about condoms was removed from 
     the National Institutes of Health Centers for Disease Control 
     and Prevention Web site and replaced with a document 
     emphasizing condom failure and the effectiveness of 
     abstinence.
       No one is suggesting that condom failure should be ignored, 
     or that there is anything wrong with promoting abstinence. 
     The fact remains, however, that the condom, in addition to 
     being a method of preventing unintended pregnancy, is the 
     most effective defense against HIV/AIDS for sexually active 
     individuals.
       In a world where 10 more people are infected with HIV every 
     minute, where half of the 40 million people already infected 
     are women, where HIV/AIDS is the leading cause of death among 
     African-American women ages 25 to 34 and the seventh leading 
     cause of death for white American women that age, it is 
     patently inexcusable to omit the condom option from what 
     should be the nation's most trusted source of medical 
     information.
       To explain the removal of the condom fact sheet, the White 
     House Office of Science and Technology Policy offered the 
     flimsy excuse that the CDC ``routinely takes information 
     off its Web site and replaces it with more up-to-date 
     information.'' Updating the Web site is understandable, 
     expunging the role of the condom in preventing HIV is 
     simply indefensible.
       If the Bush administration routinely ignores the 
     reproductive rights and health of women in the United States, 
     it is hardly surprising that respected international family 
     planning nongovernmental organizations give the White House 
     and U.S. congressional leadership low marks on their concern 
     for poor women around the world.
       Within an hour or two after taking the oath of office, 
     President Bush signed the global gag rule, a policy to deny 
     U.S. funds to overseas family planning organizations that 
     provide, perform or counsel women on abortion. In the United 
     States, this would be a flagrant violation of the First 
     Amendment right to freedom of speech. But the Bush 
     administration, while robustly promoting democratization 
     worldwide, does not hesitate to penalize the world's poorest 
     women by withholding this right from family planning 
     providers overseas.
       Then, too, the White House remains adamant in its refusal 
     to release a $34 million appropriation by Congress to the 
     United Nations Population Fund, the largest multilateral 
     provider of family planning and reproductive health services 
     to women in more than 140 developing countries.
       Ironically, the combined impact of the Bush 
     administration's global gag rule and its refusal to release 
     the congressional appropriation for the U.N. agency has led 
     to thousands of abortions resulting from pregnancies to poor 
     women worldwide who have been denied access to family 
     planning information, education and supplies.
       There is ample evidence that the availability of condoms 
     and other medically approved family planning methods already 
     has prevented substantially more abortions than the Bush 
     administration's policies have, can, or could. The women who 
     will march in Washington today understand the calculus of 
     reproductive health and family planning denial, even if many 
     of our national leaders do not.
       Werner Fornos is president of the Population Institute and 
     the 2003 United Nations Population laureate.

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