by Joan Jones Holtz of the Sierra Club Global Population Stabilization Program committee
August, 2000

For 30 years the Sierra Club has worked to slow population growth and to reduce excessive consumption--necessary if we are to protect the world's fragile environment. Two strategies have proven most successful in encouraging smaller families: providing universal access to family planning services and improving educational and economic opportunities for women. In fact, the UN reports that global fertility rates are declining.

However, for the first time in history there are six billion people on Earth--half under the age of 25. One billion, aged 14 to 24, are about to enter their reproductive years. The choices these young people make will affect our planet for the next millennium. Each day that passes increases the urgency to provide them with information and family planning services.

But such services require money, and there is a widening gap between rich and poor nations. Impoverished societies lack financial resources to provide necessary programs to encourage smaller families and must depend on wealthier countries for help. Unfortunately, anti-family planning representatives now control Congress and U.S. contributions have been considerably curtailed.

In fact, just a few months ago, in the closing days of 1999's legislative session, the Clinton administration was forced to accept a "deal" on international family planning. This "deal" promises to wreak havoc with programs that promote family planning overseas and with U.S. democratic principles.

For the past three years, the Congressional leadership, led by anti-family planning Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ), has refused to pay our UN dues without passing the Global Gag Rule. In previous years, Clinton had vetoed all such attempts in favor of protecting the health of women and the environment. But this year, when the U.S. was on the verge of losing its vote in the UN General Assembly, Clinton gave in.

The Global Gag Rule seeks to disqualify foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from eligibility for U.S. family planning assistance if--with their own money- they provide legal abortion services. Additionally, they would not be allowed to participate in public debates or "lobby" on abortion policies.

Under this new law, family planning agencies in other countries must certify to the US government what they do with funds they did NOT receive from the US government. USAID, our foreign aid agency, now has to demand that those international family planning agencies who receive U.S. funding certify that they neither provide abortion services nor lobby to change abortion laws, even if agencies provide these services with their own money-- and do so in countries where abortion is legal, as it is in the U.S. But in the United States, the government cannot dictate to U.S. NGOs (such as the Sierra Club) on how to spend their own funds. Such a demand would violate our First Amendment rights. Yet, now, USAID must make those demands to NGOs in other countries.

If a family planning agency abroad refuses to certify to the U.S. government how it spends its NON-U.S. funds, that agency's name will be put on a blacklist which will be sent to Congress. When the budgets of those blacklisted agencies total $15 million in the aggregate, one or more of those agencies will be cut out of our funding program. This procedure will affect more than one thousand organizations, large and small, from the World Health Organization to private clinics. Moreover, this law is discriminatory because it will have the greatest impact on international organizations that work in the world's poorest countries in Latin American, Africa, and Asia.

The Global Gag Rule will also divert precious funds AWAY from vital family planning programs in order to pay for costly administrative burdens to comply with Congress's new demands. Cooperating agencies, such as CARE and Save the Children, and USAID Field Missions must now issue certification forms and provide guidance to the numerous NGOs with which they work. New grant agreements incorporating the new law must be written and translated into several languages for family planning agencies abroad. These new restrictions will cause delays while tallies determine when the $15 million cap is reached and decisions are made as to which agencies should then be eliminated from funding.

International family planning agencies, unsure of the implications of the new restrictions, have begun to cut back on services. Effective programs of safe and comprehensive reproductive health care are being scaled down as agencies try to assess the impact of the new law. As a result, maternal and infant deaths, and unplanned pregnancies are sure to increase.

But, in addition to the potentially devastating results of these funding cuts, this new restriction sets a dangerous precedent against free speech. If the U.S. government can limit a group's speech and activities on issues it finds controversial, it challenges the very notion our First Amendment.

Family planning prevents abortion. It protects the health of women, children, and families by allowing them to choose the size and spacing of their families. At least 120 million women in the developing countries would use family planning if given the information and access to the reproductive health care services that they so vitally need.

At present, about 600,000 women die every year--one death per minute--from pregnancy related causes. The Global Gag Rule will only make the situation worse. Demographers estimate that the $15 million cut to existing international family planning programs could leads to: 450,000 couples deprived of safe and effective contraception; 260,000 unplanned pregnancies; more than 100,000 additional abortions; 9,400 maternal and infant deaths; and 7,400 serious illness or injury related to pregnancy and childbirth.

The Global Gag Rule is a ban on advocacy and a ban on free speech. If the Global Gag Rule were in place in the U.S., we could not be writing this alert and you could not call your member of the House of Representatives to express your views. In our country, a gag rule like this would be unconstitutional. In developing countries- where family planning clinics are often a woman's and her family's only source of health care- it's unconscionable!

Sierra Club's Global Population Stabilization Program committee members will work with coalition partners to restore funding for international family planning assistance programs to FY 1995 levels of $542 million and to remove all restrictions imposed by the Global Gag Rule. We will let Congress know that it is unacceptable to sacrifice women's lives for politics.

For more information about Sierra Club's population program, please contact
Laurie Mignone at (202) 547-1141X7910, or e-mail
laurie.mignone@sierraclub.org.