Burnt Orange Report

The Unintended Consequences of the Gag Rule

By Byron LaMasters

It seems harmless. The "gag rule" is put in place by Republican administrations to prevent funding for abortions, and facilities that perform abortions around the world. What's the big deal if a mother doesn't have money or access for an abortion. Conservatives seem to think it's harmless. The mother will just carry the child to term, then either raise the child or give it up for adoption. In their eyes, the global "gag rule" saves the lives of countless children. Wrong! The "gag rule" only helps to spread the worldwide AIDS crisis, especially in parts of the world where the crisis has reached endemic proportions. Take Ghana for example. It's a small country in western Africa hard-hit by AIDS, where the Bush "gag rule" has served to defund organizations that encourage abstainance, monogamy and condom use (in that order). Sounds like something that conservatives would encourage.... but no.

Here's the viewpoint in today's Dallas Morning News by Barbara Crossette:

From a small building on the outskirts of the crowded West African capital of Accra, Ghana, a new national organization for youth is taking shape. It's called Young & Wise, and part of its mission is to promote condom use to stop AIDS.

It doesn't distribute them willy-nilly. Its message is measured, its partners are churches and mosques, and its ABCs would be familiar to many conservative American Christians: abstain, be faithful and use a condom when the time is finally right to engage in sex. On the walls little stickers say, "True love waits."

The problem is that the supplier to Ghana of the best condoms, the U.S. Agency for International Development, can no longer give any to the project. Does this make any sense?

"It's the 'gag rule,' " explains Delah Banuelo, the organization's program officer. He is referring to the Republican ban on giving aid to groups that counsel people on abortion, whether or not the groups actually perform abortions.

The Bush administration is in effect punishing a promising effort in Ghana because Young & Wise is part of the Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana, which in turn belongs to the International Planned Parenthood Federation, an organization on the no-no list in the White House.

The gag rule has also harmed another funder of reproductive health programs in Ghana, the United Nations Population Fund. The United States has withdrawn all contributions to the fund because of unfounded reports that it supports abortions in China.

In Ghana, the trickle-down effect of the gag rule has been widespread. And because Ghanaians – Christian and Muslim – are a religious people, the effect has been to undermine many programs that conservatives could support.

[...]

At the Ahmadiya Muslim Mission in Accra, Hafiz Ahmad Saeed is in charge of another reproductive health program, one that has also felt the loss of American funds. Yet any Islamic program, he points out, must preach abstinence and no sex outside marriage.

Do conservative Christians in the United States understand that they are doing in their fellow Christians and moderate Muslims? If they do, they don't let that get in the way of their absolutist stand.

Anyone visiting Ghana would see the need for wide-ranging family planning programs. Only 19 percent of couples in Ghana use contraception. Large families are the norm; men tend to object to contraception; sex education is minimal and teen pregnancy is on the rise. In the meantime, maternity wards are crowded with exhausted, anemic women who could die in the next pregnancy, and HIV/AIDS is a pervasive threat.

Can American money alone help solve such problems? Yes. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is picking up some of the slack to help Young & Wise, and more aid would only increase the effectiveness of organizations that have proved they can change behavior, cut birthrates and raise health standards.

The message is clear: American conservatives should replace their blanket ban on family planning aid with real knowledge and nuance. One trip to Ghana would help them see the light.

A great question. If only conservative Christians in America would understand the problems that their fellow Christians in Ghana faced, perhaps they would reevaluate their position on the "gag rule". Unfortunately, this is yet another example of where conservative ideology trumps common sense and basic human decency.

Posted by Byron LaMasters at June 25, 2004 02:28 PM | TrackBack