Reinstating the Global Gag Rule

Reinstating the Global Gag Rule, denying funding to international programs that counsel women on abortion, was a stroke of brilliance on President George W. Bush's part. I find myself rethinking original perceptions of him, giving him a fair shake, as he'd say. How do you make sure a multi-billion dollar Star Wars defense system doesn't go to waste? \n Well, as Bush revealed, you make enemies of the entire planet by retracting their family planning and best shot at industrializing! Think how thankful we'll be for Bush's missile defense system when Russia thoroughly hates us again. Ah, the Reagan nostalgia is enough to make you want to sing "Material Girl" and watch "Silver Spoons." \nRussia will be devastated by the gag rule, because some of its general health facilities will lose support, since they also provide basic family planning and access to abortions.\nMore kudos to our new president for making sure America is forever top dog. When Bush said he was "a uniter, not a divider," I was afraid he spoke globally, and that he would try to bridge the huge divide between wealthy developed nations like ours, which spend $23 billion a year on pet supplies, and others, like Sierra Leone, whose average life expectancy is 45 for human males. \nOK, OK, I'll drop the charade: Reinstating the Global Gag Rule was downright heinous and brainless and everybody knows it.\nIt's called vile cultural imperialism, but the question is whose culture is Bush thrusting on the world's women and children? Surely not America's. The Global Gag Rule, brazenly undemocratic and unconstitutional, denies U.S. funds to overseas organizations that even whisper abortion as a choice to women with unwanted pregnancies. When these organizations falter, so falters prenatal care, contraceptives, education and the very foundation for basic health care and population control. \nEvery 60 seconds a woman dies in pregnancy or childbirth. The Gag Rule is essentially a death sentence to women worldwide. The crime? Being female in a poor country.\nHow un-American is the Gag Rule? It violates freedom of speech and discriminates against private organizations, both deeply antithetical to U.S. efforts to promote civil society. It pleases an extremist population of mostly fossilized white men. An overwhelmingly pro-choice nation that last considerably more votes for a pro-choice candidate in 2000 finds its voice stifled just like the women overseas who are losing their rights. The Gag Rule also scorns the international consensus regarding family planning.\nFrom Sri Lanka to Somalia to Suriname, more women use contraceptives because of family planning agencies. More women have prenatal care and don't have to resort to potentially fatal illegal abortions in the event of an unwanted pregnancy.\nSo why would Bush aggressively reinstate measures which harshly divide the developing world even farther from the industrialized world? Never mind that our country now consists of gloating Bush supporters versus the terminally Bush-averse. Must the whole globe be cleaved more sharply in two because of this snickering "Uniter"?\nIn 1995, U.S. family planning aid totaling $577 million and cost Americans about $2 each annually. You just can't get more cost-efficient than that, and at the same time decrease population growth, educate and empower men and women, prevent unplanned pregnancies, reduce abortions, reducing unsafe abortions and maternal death and control the spread of HIV and AIDS. Whew! For only $2 a year we could get all that?\nWhat I'd like to know is how a simpering white man, one who's never in his caviar-encrusted life even traveled to Europe, assumes he can tamper with what he knows nothing about. Does George W. Bush really know what's best for a pregnant Indian woman who already has six children, poor health and plenty of poverty? This is a grown man who adores peanut butter and jelly, idolizes pitcher Nolan Ryan and admits he's not too hot on foreign policy. \nBut Bush feels entitled to tell foreign organizations they can't use their own money to offer abortion and can't consult their own governments in their own country so women can make decisions regarding their own bodies? Feed the man some peanut butter and let's enact a gag rule of our own.\nBush is neither as malicious or as dumb as we feared. So why resurrect the Global Gag Rule? Does he think by making the rest of the world such an undesirable place to live, we will be fooled into thinking America keeps getting better? Perhaps Dad told him to do it to spite former President Bill Clinton for repealing the Gag Rule in 1993. Maybe someone should look into just how much the Religious Right really boosted Bush's campaign. \nOne thing is certain: Our new president will hedge democracy whether he's obstructing the electoral process on U.S. soil or censoring speech in foreign lands.