January 24, 2001

TO: JCPA Member Agencies

FROM: Karen Senter, Assistant Executive Vice Chair

RE: Administration Decision to Block Funds to International Family Planning Groups

The JCPA Insider this week took note of President Bush’s move to reinstate a ban on federal funding for groups that provide abortion counseling overseas. The JCPA has long been on record opposing such action. In our 2000-2001 Agenda for Jewish Public Affairs, we noted that the JCPA would continue "to work in coalitions to oppose these and all efforts to limit access to the full range of health services for women."

Attached, for your information, are statements released this week by JCPA member agencies reacting to the President’s decision.

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NCJW OUTRAGED BY ANTI-FAMILY PLANNING EXECUTIVE ORDER

January 22, 2001, Washington, DC – The National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) National President Jan Schneiderman issued the following statement in response to the re-installment of the gag rule on international family planning providers by President Bush:

"The National Council of Jewish Women is outraged that, in one of his first acts in office, President Bush has attacked not only the reproductive health of indigent women around the world, but the most basic democratic right of free speech.

This issue is not about government funding of abortion. US law already prohibits the use of federal international aid funds for performing abortion. Instead, this Executive Order allows the US government to tell international family planning organizations what they can and cannot do or say with their own, private funds. It affects not only what US groups say but also dictates what foreign organizations can say to their government and in their communities – a clear infringement of free speech, one of the basic foundations of democracy. Such restrictions will surely have dire consequences for the continued success of these critically needed health programs which save the lives of thousands of women and children every year."

The National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) is the oldest Jewish women’s volunteer organization and one of the foremost non-profits working on behalf of women, children and families of all ethnic, religious and economic backgrounds. Its 90,000 members, volunteers, and supporters in 500 communities nationwide work through a program of advocacy, education, and community service. For over 106 years, NCJW has been dedicated to social justice and to securing individual rights and freedoms for all.

AJCONGRESS "DISTRESSED" BY BUSH'S DECISION TO BLOCK U.S. FUNDS TO INTERNATIONAL FAMILY PLANNING GROUPS
THAT PROVIDE ABORTIONS AND ABORTION COUNSELING

(January 22, 2001) Declaring, "We hope that President Bush's action does not signify a full retreat from the policy of protecting reproductive choice, which is supported by the overwhelming majority of Americans," the Commission for Women's Equality (CWE) of the American Jewish Congress expressed deep concern today that President Bush has announced that he plans to block federal funding to international family planning groups that provide abortions and abortion counseling.

The full text of the statement by CWE Director Lois Waldman is as follows:

It is distressing that as one of his first official acts, President Bush has chosen to block U.S. funds to international family planning groups that provide abortions and abortion counseling, even though existing regulations strictly require that U.S. taxpayer funds be segregated and that abortions and abortion counseling are paid for exclusively out of their own resources and not with U.S. taxpayer funds, and in countries where abortion is legal.

President Bush's action is particularly ironic since funding of international family planning reduces abortions. Where couples cannot plan their families, high fertility is part of a vicious cycle of poverty, rapid population growth, unemployment and natural resource scarcities.

The benefits of international family planning are clear: fewer women die in childbirth or from back alley abortions and parents are better able to feed, educate, and provide for their children. We hope that President Bush's action does not signify a full retreat from the policy of protecting reproductive choice, which is supported by the overwhelming majority of Americans.

The American Jewish Congress, founded in 1918 by Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, Justice Louis D. Brandeis and other distinguished Jews, specializes in combating all forms of bigotry through law and legislation. Considered the legal voice of the American Jewish Community, it works to safeguard Jewish interests, protect basic freedoms enshrined in the American Bill of Rights and to advance the security of Israel.

Religious Action Center

Nation’s Largest Jewish Organization Expresses Disappointment In President

Bush’s Reinstatement Of The Global Gag Rule

Saperstein: "If the President is serious about reducing the need for abortion, cutting the funding for international family planning - which has never been allowed to be used to fund abortion activity - is the wrong way to do it."

WASHINGTON, January 23, 2001 - Rabbi David Saperstein, Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, today issued the following statement reacting to President Bush’s decision yesterday to reinstate the Global Gag Rule. Under the Global Gag Rule, foreign family planning organizations that use their own, non-U.S. funds to provide legal abortion services or to lobby their own governments for changes in abortion laws are banned from receiving any U.S. aid for their non-abortion family planning

work:

"I am deeply disappointed that President George Bush, as one of his first acts as President, issued an executive order to withhold U.S. family planning funding to overseas organizations that support legal abortion. This represents a major setback for international family planning programs and sends the wrong message to Americans and our allies abroad.

"As Jews, we consider all life to be sacred. We do not celebrate abortion, and we welcome President Bush’s comments this past weekend in which he called for a reduction in the need for abortion, rather than focusing on a legislative ban on abortion. However, this nation must recognize the fundamental importance of reproductive freedom and a woman’s ability to make moral decisions, often in consultation with her clergy, family and physician, on whether or not to have an abortion.

"Yesterday’s Executive Act by President Bush was an unacceptable attempt to abridge reproductive freedom worldwide. If the President is serious about reducing the need for abortion, cutting the funding for international family planning - which has never been allowed to be used to fund abortion activity - is the wrong way to do it. I am disappointed that President Bush would begin his tenure on such a divisive note and hope that he will return to his campaign theme of being a uniter, not a divider. It is especially egregious that a nation which, by law, affirms a woman’s right to choose on its own soil, would place such restrictions on the rights and needs of women throughout the world.

The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism is the Washington office of The Union of American Hebrew Congregations, representing its 895 congregations across North America, whose membership includes 1.5 million Reform Jews, and the 1700 rabbis of the Central Conference of American Rabbis.