Detroit Free Press August 10, 2003 ____________________________________________ Primitive ideas on women's health, family planning will hurt party By William G. Milliken [Milliken was Republican governor of Michigan from 1969 to 1983, and the longest-serving governor in the state's history]. ___________________________________________ The Republican Party could be setting itself up for defeat in 2004 in a scenario similar to what occurred in 1992. Then, the GOP lapsed into antediluvian rhetoric and policies at the convention, and the response still sends chills down the spine of party leaders. Yet by catering ever more abjectly to the noisy, reactionary extremists of our party who are determined to impose their sectarian views and morality on the rest of us, the GOP's vulnerability among moderate voters, particularly women, continues to intensify. There was a time when politicians could appeal to prejudice and intolerance by baiting the opposition with red-meat code words. Not now. In this new millennium, the world is smaller, as different cultures, traditions and religious beliefs are merged together. Events in New York, Afghanistan and Iraq have educated Americans, as never before, to the perils of religious absolutism in a multicultural world. Most Americans are well aware that the societies that are most restrictive of women's rights are also the nations of greatest poverty, disease and environmental degradation, stemming from high birth rates and unrestricted population growth. We know that the lack of access to basic family planning services and information undermines a woman's ability to determine her own destiny. It also increases illness and mortality rates of women and their children, and inhibits the ability of families to climb out of poverty. By playing the politics of the past, the GOP is allowing itself to become identified with an agenda on family planning that threatens to reverse the decades of progress in empowering women in the United States and abroad. The right wing is seeking to impose an entire set of doctrinaire beliefs that will sharply restrict health care for women and, as a result, actually increase the number of abortions worldwide. Sadly, they are succeeding. These absolutists have just won a narrow vote in the U.S. House to cut in half America's contribution to the United Nation's Population Fund (UNFPA), the only truly worldwide effort to provide reproductive health services to families in the developing world. And last year, these absolutists helped to deny $34 million to the UNFPA program. UNFPA officials estimated these funds -- $34 million worth -- would have prevented 2 million unintended pregnancies, nearly 800,000 abortions, 4,700 maternal deaths, nearly 60,000 cases of serious maternal illness, and more than 77,000 infant and child deaths. Last year's denial of funding and this year's cut in funding, so-called victories for the far right, will likely again lead to millions of unintended pregnancies and a staggering increase in the number of abortions worldwide. The right is doing this all the while knowing that counseling and education reduce the incidences of abortion. In Russia, for instance, greater funding of contraceptive and family planning services over a 4-year period led to a drop in abortions of 800,000 annually. This real-world evidence doesn't seem to matter to some in the GOP who seem oblivious to the logical corollary that freedom and choice on cultural and social policy must start at home. The World Health Organization estimates that 40 percent of unintended pregnancies end in abortion. We know from UNICEF that almost 600,000 women die annually during pregnancy and childbirth. The World Bank estimates that improved access to family planning can reduce the number of maternal deaths by 20 percent. All Republicans will never universally agree on the highly emotionally charged issue of abortion. But at the very least, can't we agree that our aim is to reduce unwanted pregnancies and the incidence of abortion? The zeal of those on the far right has blinded them to the fact that their actions are actually increasing abortions worldwide. Some in our party appear to model their plan for international family planning on the medieval social philosophy of the Taliban. But you won't attract many women voters by making the burka our party's fashion statement. Having seen the impoverished, uneducated and imprisoned women of the Middle East and Afghanistan, most voters will readily reject an agenda that undermines our international commitment to women's rights. The Republican Party should be ashamed of itself for relapsing into those policies that have caused so much political harm in the past. As we head into another election cycle, we are certain to hear much about "compassionate conservatives." Last time it was a promise; this time it will be a matter of record. Voters who care about these issues will rightly ask themselves, "Is my country more compassionate than it was four years ago?" The GOP has only 15 months left to improve its record if it has any chance of getting skeptical women -- and men -- to answer, "Yes." ======================================================================== -- http://populationinstitute.ca/ http://www.scientists4pr.org/ Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist.—Kenneth Boulding |