Bush's War on Women

Fighting terrorism, invading Iraq and boosting Big Oil aren't the only priorities George W. Bush has pursued with a vengeance since taking office. Here (with thanks to the Population Connection, Planned Parenthood Federation of America and women's enews, are some highlights of his (and his emissaries') relentless war on women:

December 2000
 Gives the nod to extreme anti-choice zealot, John Ashcroft, for attorney general.
 Selects anti-choice governor, Tommy Thompson, to be secretary of health and human services

January 2001
 Resurrected the global gag rule on his first day in office, the 28th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, ending US aid to international family planning programs whose services included abortions, counseling, or lobbying to change abortion laws - even if they used their own money and US funds weren't used for those purposes.

March 2001
 Closed the White House Office for Women's Initiatives and Outreach. Created by president Clinton in 1995, the office was responsible for reviewing legislation for its impact on women and maintaining a network of leaders in the women's community.

April 2001
 Stripped contraceptive coverage for federal employees from his first budget to Congress, even though Viagra had been covered since 1998. Despite the administration's efforts, Congress restored the benefit.

May 2001
 Nominated Charles Pickering, who as a Mississippi state senator supported a constitutional amendment outlawing abortion, and anti-choice advocate Priscilla Owen, to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals; however Bush bowed to pressure on his candidate to head US global population programs, withdrawing birth-control opponent John Klink from consideration. Reproductive health and women's advocates exposed Klink's opposition to promoting condoms to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS and to providing reproductive health services for refugee women.

January 2002
 Designated "unborn children" as eligible for federal health insurance, while refusing to cover pregnant women.

June 2002
 Without explanation, altered key health findings (that abortions do not increase the risk of breast cancer or HIV) on CDC and NIH Websites.

July 2002
 Withheld $34 million in international family planning assistance from UNFPA, despite State Department findings that there had been no violations of the global gag rule.

August 2002
 Reneged on an earlier promise to provide $2.5 million in emergency funds for Afghan women who, as determined by the CDC and UNICEF, suffer one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the world, and blocked the release of another $200 million to address HIV/AIDS in Afghanistan.

October 2002
 Told a UN population conference that the US supports "the sanctity of life from conception to natural death"; and extended federal protections to embryos in research.

November 2002
 Froze $3 million in funding to the World Health Organization's reproductive health program because it had researched the "morning after" pill.

December 2002
 Tried to delete the terms "reproductive health services," "reproductive rights" and "sexual health and rights" from a resolution at a UN population conference in Bangkok, pushing abstinence instead; and appointed David Hager, who prescribed prayer and reading the Bible to relieve PMS symptoms, to the FDA's Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee.

January 2003
 Declared the anniversary of Roe v. Wade "National Sanctity of Life Day (second year in a row).

March 2003
 Proposed cutting $65 million from international family planning funds, and increasing funding of abstinence-only sex-education programs by $33 million.

May 2003
 Required one-third of HIV/AIDS prevention funds to be provided under a global HIV/AIDS Relief bill to be used exclusively to promote abstinence until marriage.

August 2003
 Eliminated funding of reproductive health programs for African and Asian refugees--denying basic services to women who upended their lives to seek freedom; and expanded the global gag rule to include international programs administered by the State Department.

November 2003
 Signed a law making certain abortions illegal - which, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists "violates the fundamental principle at the very heart of the doctor-patient relationship, that the doctor - in consultation with the patient based on the patient's individual circumstances - must choose the most appropriate method of care for the patient."

January 2004
 After trying without success for almost three years to win Senate approval of the Pickering nomination, circumvented the legislative branch entirely with an interim appointment between sessions of Congress.

-- From remarks by former AJC Columnist Carole Ashkinaze to the Georgia WIN list, 2/5/04