Advocates Press Obama To Shift Global Policies Away From Bush's Religion-Based Approach

Main Category: Women's Health / Gynecology
Also Included In: Sexual Health / STDs;  Public Health;  Abortion
Article Date: 22 Jan 2009 - 0:00 PDT

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Socially progressive advocacy groups are calling for President Obama's administration to change the nation's approach to global reproductive health and women's rights efforts, including through the restoration of family-planning funding for the United Nations Population Fund, the Washington Post reports. According to the Post, the efforts are part of a push to "transform the way the United States deals with matters of sex, marriage and religious values in the international arena." Congress plans to submit legislation to Obama by March that would restore tens of millions of dollars to UNFPA for family-planning programs for the first time in seven years. In addition, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) have pressured the Obama administration to support U.N. conventions to expand rights for women and children. Susan Rice, Obama's nominee for U.N. ambassador, during her Senate confirmation hearing last week said that she also supports the 1979 U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. In addition, Secretary of State-designate Hillary Rodham Clinton has said she plans to increase U.S. support for women's rights "in every country, every region on every continent."

The Post reports that Obama's first week in office will coincide with the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, which past presidents have used as an occasion to impose or remove restrictions on funding for groups that provide abortions in other countries. Adrienne Germain, president of the International Women's Health Coalition, said that she hopes the Obama administration will renew leadership on a platform established during the 1994 U.N. Cairo Conference on Population and Development, which emphasized the legitimacy of different types of families and established a basis for women's reproductive health rights, and work toward the goal of universal access to reproductive health services in the next five years. Germain said that during the Bush administration, the "American people have been stifled by the loud and well-organized views of a minority, legitimized by the White House. This is a restoration of the majority view, which is that most people want to see the separation of church and state." Joseph Amon, head of the HIV/AIDS and Human Rights Program at Human Rights Watch, said that although Bush had supported significant investment in global efforts against HIV/AIDS, the efforts relied too heavily on abstinence-based programs. Amon said, "If we want to have an impact on the AIDS epidemic, we cannot allow moral ideological consideration to trump scientific evidence and human rights." Alan Leshner, CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, said that he expects that "there is going to be a reversal in the way in which we approach science-based issues" under the Obama administration, adding that "[s]cience will replace ideology and political expediency as the basis from which you start."

The Post reports that social conservatives -- who under the Bush administration "enjoyed direct access to the White House and to American negotiators in U.N. debates" -- now are "bracing for a long period in the political wilderness." Conservatives plan to refocus attention toward alliances with other conservatives, such as the Vatican, traditionally Catholic countries and Islamic nations. Patrick Fagan, director of the Center for Family and Religion at the Family Research Council, said he predicts a "tectonic shift" in global social policies under Obama's administration (Lynch, Washington Post, 1/18).

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