Senate Votes to Ease Family Planning Rules (Boxer, Murray, Snowe amend.)

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON - In an annual battle in Congress, the Senate voted Tuesday to lift restrictions on U.S. family planning aid to health centers abroad that promote or perform abortions.

Despite the 52-46 vote, supporters of lifting the restrictions will have a tough time changing the law. The House has consistently voted to maintain the restrictions. President Bush has in previous years threatened to veto such bills.

The vote came as an amendment to a bill authorizing $34 billion in spending on 2006 foreign aid and State Department operations. The figure generally reflects Bush's spending request and is about a 13 percent increase over current spending.

Much of that increase is for fighting AIDS worldwide and for the Millennium Challenge program, which ties U.S. assistance to countries' efforts to build democracy and develop free-market economies.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=512&ncid=1278&e=4&u=/ap/20050405/ap_on_go_co/congress_family_planning

Senate votes out Bush foreign aid cuts to family planning


US President George W. Bush late last year extended a March 2001 order blocking the US Agency for International Development from providing grants to foreign groups supporting abortion.

That ban, sometimes referred to as the Mexico City policy or the global gag rule, denies US family planning funds to foreign organizations that counsel, perform or advocate abortion, although they do so using their own funds.

President Ronald Reagan originally imposed the ban in 1984. It was renewed by Reagan's successor, George Bush, the current president's father, but was rescinded in 1993 by then-president Bill Clinton.

The George W. Bush administration expanded the global gag rule to cover the entire State Department budget, more than eight billion dollars.

Tuesday's vote to end the ban came as an amendment sponsored by Democrats Barbara Boxer and Patti Murray and Republican Olympia Snowe during debate on a State Department funding bill.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1521&ncid=1278&e=5&u=/afp/20050405/pl_afp/usabortionaidpolitics

[meganmonkey]

1. Good!

It's about time!

[baby_bear]

2. Good, but will go nowhere

The Republican "small government" folks will make sure this goes nowhere.

I am grateful for the speeches on the floor in favor of it today. Boxer was great. But the creeps like Brownback will get their way in the end. At least this time around.

b_b

[Erika]

3. The global gag rule is endangering women & families

I'm ashamed of right-wing extremists like Bush trying to push their interpretation of religion worldwide.

[Moderator]

4. kick to combine

[FizzFuzz]

5. Global Gag Rule Victory

Senate Votes to Lift Gag Rule

I received this email, Tues 6:40pm, from my subscription to Population Connection--

<snip>
Just a few minutes ago, the Senate voted 52-46 to overturn the odious Global Gag Rule that President Bush imposed in the first days of his first term. The debate occurred with very little advance notice -- or we would have let you know ahead of time.
The vote came on an amendment proposed by Sen. Barbara Boxer to S.600, a bill authorizing a number of foreign policy programs. By adopting the Boxer Amendment, the Senate acted to ensure that America's foreign policy reflects America's values. And it stood up for the right of poor women around the world to take control of their own lives and their own futures.

The Global Gag Rule denies U.S. family planning aid to foreign health care providers that use their own, privately raised funds to provide legal abortions, to provide counseling or referrals on legal abortion, or to publicly support legal abortion within their own countries. It forces providers to choose between receiving desperately needed funds or maintaining the ability to provide patients with full and complete information and the right to speak out on an important public health policy issue. Either choice hurts the women these providers exist to help.

The effects of the Global Gag Rule have been dramatic. In countries throughout the developing world, health care providers have been unable to agree to sacrifice their rights and ignore their responsibilities to provide women with information about all of their legal options. In Kenya, clinics have closed leaving tens of thousands of poor people without the services they need. In Ethiopia, contraceptive supplies in some clinics have run out, leaving thousands of women at risk for an unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease. Indeed, rather than preventing abortion, the Global Gag Rule only makes unsafe abortion more likely because it cuts off funding for contraception.
<end snip>

This was email; website is www.populationconnection.org

[atommom]

6. Finally, some good news tonight!

[Trillo]

7. It seems Bu* is encounting a bit of resistance

for his self-defined "mandate".

:rofl:

[LibertyorDeath]

8. Some good news !

Cheers to Sen. Barbara Boxer & all those that helped lift the Gag Rule

:toast:

[enough]

9. That IS a victory. Thanks for the news.

[The Doctor.]

10. I called a local radio show right after Bush instated this...

I explained that these were groups in the business of education more than abortion, that the education they provided cut down on std's and unwanted pregnancies. I said this wouldmake things worse for women worldwide.

I'm liking Boxer more and more.

[jdj]

11. yay!!!

I just posted about this the other day.

wow. I hope Randal Terry hears this. I keep waiting for the "hell to pay" to break out!

Of course, this actually could be a strategic move to whip the fundies into a frenzy again....why else would the repukes allow it?

[silverweb]

12. That's my Senator!

:woohoo:

Go, Barbara!!

And thanks to the moderate Republicans who crossed the aisle to help bring some sanity to this situation at long last. Hopefully, this is the beginning of a trend and we'll see some more independent, rational thinking.

:bounce:

[TlalocW]

13. Rather ironic this coming on the heels of the Pope's death

That alone makes me smile - knowing that this was more than likely a move by Bush that the Popester really liked, and just days after he died, it's finally overturned.

Chip a little bit off his legacy.

TlalocW

[rodeodance]

14. I listened to Boxter today--she was great--she was up against several

Repug males who opposed it--keep saying it was taxpayer money-etc etc--tried to change the topic during the whole debate. I admire to ability not to shout at them to shut their friken traps!!

[Nothing Without Hope]

17. yes, they don't understand what REAL strength is, they see so much of

the fake bullying kind in their own party. About time they had a lesson - for their own good, of course O8) ...and OURS!!! :woohoo:

I added this thread to the "Good News" thread at the KOEB Group - it's still pretty short because the major media prefer all bad news all the time. Feel free to jump in if you know of a story that is GOOD news, HAPPY news to lift our spirits:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=315x1796

[Nothing Without Hope]

15. Excellent news! Recommended

Thank you for posting this!
:hi:

[Kool Kitty]

16. I second that!!!

Terrific!!! :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[FizzFuzz]

19. my pleasure! I was doing the woohoo dance myself when I saw it!

Barbara Boxer RULES!!!!!!! To get rid of Gag Rules!!!!!!!! (my little attempt at lyric, there..heh heh)
:woohoo:

[DeepModem Mom]

18. kick