One might assume that the United States, which sends more than $200 million in aid to Ethiopia each year, is in a position to help. Not so. Thanks to restrictions put in place by both the Bush administration and anti-abortion Republicans in Congress, most of that aid has been funneled away from family-planning organizations, forcing health clinics to shut down and birth-control supplies to dwindle. "We haven't counted the number of women who got pregnant as a result," one local advocate said.
Even though these restrictions have exacted a deadly toll on women in developing countries--and, ironically, may well increase the abortion rate--they garner relatively little attention, tracked mainly by advocacy groups and the occasional attentive columnist. But the debate over family-planning funds could become one of the major reproductive-rights battles over the next two years: Although pro-choice Democrats in Congress may lack the votes to improve abortion rights at home, the international arena is a different matter, and the first skirmish may come over one of the most notorious Bush-era policies--the so-called "global gag rule".
We have talked about this before, but this is a perfect example of ideology (as I think UBUB pointed out) creating serious problems when it dominates policy.
5 comments:
the best way for us to stop having abortions and to stop unwanted pregnancies is for men and women to obey God's commands.....sex only in the boundaries of marriage.
when men choose to disobey God is when we have all sorts of troubles...like unwanted pregnancies, abortions, aids, std's, etc.
volfan007
Yeah, Volfan. Way to read the post closely.
Yup, best way. Of course, if everyone obeyed God, we wouldn't have murder, robbery, poverty, etc. What a magical world it would be.
Yep, that really helps us with policy issues. Sure glad you keep popping in here with those deeply insightful observations. No one would EVER consider that.
Sigh.
Of course, women are also less likely to have abortions when they have things like health insurance and jobs that pay them more than $5.15 an hour. Imagine that.
Incidentally, why do you expect people who aren't Christians to follow the teachings of the Bible?
wasp,
people were poor in the great depression era too...they didnt resort to killing babies as a way to avoid more poverty.
also, i dont expect people who are not christians to follow the bible's teachings. but, i will still speak up for the innocent and the defenseless when they are being mistreated and abused and murdered. and, i would hope that our society would not go so low as to kill undesirables like nazi germany did not too long ago, and like what is happening in darfur now.
volfan007
Post a Comment