[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 30 (Thursday, March 9, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Page S1957]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY

  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I rise today to speak about International 
Women's Day, which was yesterday, March 8. The theme this year is 
``women in decisionmaking.'' As I contemplated the meaning of this, I 
thought about how important it is for women to be involved in the 
decisionmaking about their own bodies.
  And in this vein I would like to talk about the global gag rule.
  When President Bush took office in 2001, he signed an Executive order 
known as the global gag rule. It denies U.S. funds to any overseas 
health clinic unless it agrees not to participate in any activities 
related to abortion services. Those activities include: providing legal 
abortions except in cases of rape, incest, or where the woman's life is 
endangered; and offering advice and information regarding the 
availability and benefits of abortion and providing referrals for 
abortion services.
  The global gag rule denies U.S. funds even if the overseas health 
clinic is using its own privately raised funds for these services. What 
that means is that if you are a medical professional living in an 
impoverished country trying to help people and save their lives, you 
are gagged from even talking about certain reproductive health 
services. The gag rule places limits on women and doctors that we have 
deemed unacceptable here in the United States.
  Last year, the Senate passed an amendment to the Foreign Affairs 
Authorization Act to reverse the President's policy and ensure that 
health care clinics for women and families receive this much needed 
funding. Unfortunately, this legislation has not been passed by the 
full Senate. The Foreign Operations Appropriations bill last year 
contained $34 million for the United Nations Population Fund, UNPA, for 
this purpose. But in order to ensure that this money goes toward 
funding health care clinics for women and families in poor countries, 
we must overturn this global gag rule.
  In many poor countries around the world, nongovernmental 
organizations and medical professionals are working to make things 
better. They have set up clinics and reached out to the women and 
families in poor communities. They are doing great work. But their 
hands are tied, because the Bush administration has imposed a political 
ideology on the world.
  Overturning the global gag rule is about safe access to health care 
for women. Hundreds of thousands of women are dying each year from 
complications from pregnancy. These women do not have access to the 
health care that they need, especially reproductive health care. I will 
continue to speak out about the importance of providing safe access to 
health care for women all over the globe until this dangerous policy is 
lifted.

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