Family planning providers fear gag order
Loss of funding could result from defying Bush administration's rules
Family planning providers around the state
and country are bracing for expected new rules from the Bush
administration that would prohibit them from counseling women on
abortion or face the loss of federal funding.
"We think it is absolutely coming," said Chris Taylor, political
director for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, of the new
regulations.
Such a "gag order" would prohibit health care professionals from
discussing abortion even if continuing a pregnancy endangered the
life of a woman, Taylor says.
She says staff at the national offices of Planned Parenthood have
been told by Republican lawmakers to expect the rules. The Wall
Street Journal also reported Friday that a coalition of some 70
conservative organizations, including the Family Research Council
and the Eagle Forum, are about to present a petition to President
Bush urging him to deny federal subsidies to clinics that provide
abortions or counsel women about abortions.
"President Bush has defined himself as a pro-life president, and
this is definitely something that he should see as part of his
legacy," Jessica Echard, executive director of the Eagle Forum,
told the paper.
The White House did not respond to requests for comment by The Wall
Street Journal.
The petition, which is posted on the Family Research Council's Web
site, takes Bush to task for ignoring a "lingering issue that has
undermined your administration's consistent commitment to ensure
that federal funds deployed for family planning projects not be
used to promote abortion as a method of family planning."
The new rules would essentially mimic an international gag order
that Bush issued on his second day in office. It prevents overseas
organizations that receive U.S. family planning aid from providing
any information about abortion or using private money to refer
patients for abortion or provide the procedure.
According to a Planned Parenthood fact sheet, the international
rule has "shut down family planning clinics in some of the poorest
nations in the world, increasing unintended pregnancy and abortion
rates, and STI and HIV/AIDS infection."
"What they've done internationally has just been devastating,"
Taylor said.
Under so-called Title X funding, the federal government gives
nearly $3 million a year to Wisconsin Planned Parenthood clinics
that provide breast and cervical cancer screenings, tests for such
conditions as diabetes and high blood pressure, birth control
services and supplies and the testing and treatment of sexually
transmitted diseases.
Rules in place for years have prohibited this federal money from
being used for abortion services. But the new rule also would force
groups like Planned Parenthood, which provide abortion services at
some locations, to form separate corporations in order for their
family planning arm to continue to receive federal dollars.
Bush's expected new rules would affect 5 million mostly low-income
women across the country who receive Title X services, according to
Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin officials. In Wisconsin, 19 health
centers that serve more than 50,000 patients would be affected.
Taylor said such a rule would hurt "every single family planning
provider in the state. It puts you between a rock and a hard
place."
The patients who would be cut off from basic health care and family
prevention services are particularly vulnerable, she adds. "They
earn enough not to be eligible for Medicaid but they're poor. They
don't have anywhere to go if this program is destroyed by
Bush."
If Bush, as expected, follows through with such a rule it would not
be the first time a Republican president has tried to restrict
access to abortion and birth control through administrative rules,
which do not require congressional approval.
President Ronald Reagan did the same thing as he was leaving office
20 years ago, but the rule was put on hold as a court challenge
worked its way through the judicial process. The U.S. Supreme Court
eventually cleared the rule for implementation some four years
later, but President Bill Clinton, once he took office soon
thereafter, rescinded the regulation.
Help across
borders
The Bush administration stepped up its crackdown on illegal
immigration with the criminal sentencing Friday of 270 undocumented
workers who were arrested in a May 12 raid at a meatpacking plant
in Postville, Iowa.
The workers, many of whom are from Guatemala, each got five months
in prison.
In the past, undocumented workers picked up by immigration
officials would generally have been detained on civil violations
and then deported.
In all, 389 workers were detained by authorities in what federal
officials are calling the largest immigration raid ever.
Local activists trying to help the families of those arrested and
others displaced by the raids last week raised $1,500 at a vigil
hosted by the Madison Guatemala Network and St. Mark's Lutheran
Church.
Madison resident Sandra Rybachek was to hand-deliver the check on
Memorial Day to the Iowa families.
The Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice also is urging its
members on its Web site to call Iowa officials and urge the
protection of immigrants' rights.
Donations for families can still be made through St. Bridget's
Hispanic Ministry Fund, in care of Sister Mary McCauley, PO Box
369, Postville, IA 52162.
