[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 982]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



          AID TO INTERNATIONAL FAMILY PLANNING SHOULD CONTINUE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Slaughter) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in coalition with my 
colleagues to express my deep concern and opposition to President 
Bush's recent declaration to discontinue the aid in family planning and 
to reinstate the global gag rule. In essence, this global gag rule 
restricts foreign, nongovernmental organizations that accept 
international family planning funds from using their own non-U.S. money 
to provide legal abortion services or to lobby their own governments 
for changes in the abortion laws. While this gag rule is simply bad 
policy, its consequences are extremely severe, affecting the health of 
women and families in some of the poorest and neediest countries under 
some of the direst of circumstances. These consequences have not been 
fully or accurately disclosed to the American people. At its best, this 
global gag rule will serve to undermine a key priority of United States 
foreign policy, to promote Democratic values worldwide. At its worst, 
it will block access to contraceptives, increase the incidents of 
illegal abortion and lead to higher maternal mortality rates. Instead 
of presenting these facts to the American people, President Bush 
provided the press with an attractive sound bite explaining his recent 
decision: Quote, I am opposed to American taxpayer dollars being used 
to pay for abortions overseas, end quote.
  The statement is grossly inaccurate. As we know, the global gag rule 
is totally unrelated to the issue of taxpayers' funds being used for 
abortions. In fact, since 1973, under the Helms amendment, the United 
States has prohibited the use of taxpayer funds from being used for the 
performance of abortions by foreign recipients of international family 
planning aid. That is nearly 30 years.
  Before he was elected, George W. Bush said he wanted to change the 
way America thinks about abortion and he claimed to be a uniter and did 
a wonderful adroit dance around this issue every time he was asked. 
Nothing in his campaign suggested that he intended to take this step 
which, frankly, according to his words, he seems not to understand what 
he has done.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today to not only express my strong opposition to 
President Bush's efforts to reinstate the global gag rule, but I urge 
the Bush administration to correct their misstatements about 
international planning aid. The American people deserve to know the 
truth.

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