The Abortion of the Bush Administration

The Abortion of the Bush Administration

With the Election of 2004 at our footsteps, the Bush administration has taken measures to assume positions on what will be key issues during the debate process. One of these issues is the controversy over abortions. Under the Bush administration the past four years have given Pro-Life an edge over Pro-Choice, due to victory campaigns against the Planned Parenthood Federation of America in Austin, Texas, and Houghton, Michigan. Even more imperative, victories in Congress and the White House show a promising future for the de-legalization of abortion as a whole in the United States. These localized boycotts and national legislations show that the facts favor Pro-Life, exhibiting an increase in clinics that are being closed, and a decrease in the amount of abortions that are being performed. Unfortunately, these victories are empty since they are actually harming the communities of this nation (and many other nations), more than they are helping them.

Bush has made it clear that for the Election of 2004 he'll take the same position of Pro-Life that he took on in 2001, by promoting what he calls "a culture of life." While Bush is getting applauses from abortion opponents and religious advocates, the consequences could hurt him in his campaign for re-election. His decision to leave out a significant population of people who believe that women have the right to do what they want to their bodies could put him at a great disadvantage. Looking back at the Election of 2000, Bush had a poor standing with female voters, most of whom supported Democrat Al Gore. Even though this was the case, Bush has made little or no effort to improve his relations with the women voters while in office. To illustrate his disregard to women we can look towards the signing of the Partial Birth Abortion Ban, which he enacted in November of 2003. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi called the act "a slap in the face to women across America." She described the event as a celebration by a group of men, saluting the deprivation "of a medical procedure that could save the health and lives" of women.

The consequences of Bush's campaign, which encourages abstinence as the best way of limiting family size, can be seen by the huge impact it has made on nations overseas as well. In 2001, just days after being sworn into office, Bush re-instated the 1984 Mexico City Rule, which prohibited foreign non-governmental organizations to receive funding from the United States if they perform abortions, or give abortion counseling. Abortion advocates have renamed this policy as the "Global Gag Rule," since it has suppressed efforts to help foreign countries that are suffering from poverty and disease, which could be stemmed by the guidance of these organizations. Accordingly with this policy Bush has withheld about $35 million in funding to the United Nations Population Fund and the World Health Organization, since they include abortions in their programs. These programs are goal oriented to reduce poverty by making information available on contraception's and abortions. By educating the people of these poor countries, these programs teach them a way to limit the size of their families, which constrain them to their social and economic status of poverty. The Population Action International and the Planned Parenthood Federation of America conducted a survey of countries affected by the re-instated "Global Gag Rule" that included Ethiopia, Kenya, Romania and Zambia. The findings showed that the cutting off of funds from the United States have forced many clinics to close, leaving the men and women of these countries with no access to contraceptives that could prevent unwanted pregnancies and AIDS. In Kenya, where AIDS and pregnancies are a widespread epidemic, a single family planning clinic was closed, leaving 300,000 people with no health care services. The study also showed that in Romania, women were more likely to get pregnant due to the lack of guidance from the family planning clinics that closed due to Bush's policy. In addition to not getting any information on contraceptives that could prevent