While some hail the United States for internationally expanding freedom for women in the aftermath of September 11, Kathy Kushnir, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of Rhode Island, argues that the Bush administration's is increasingly denying women their reproductive rights here in the US.

For example, Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson wants to expand the definition of a child under the State Children's Health Insurance Program to include fetuses. This program, created as part of the Social Security Act, provides health coverage to uninsured children whose families earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, but too little to afford private coverage. By granting health-care coverage from conception, the US Department of Health and Human Services would be defining a child in pro-life terms. However, Kushnir contends, it is the "pregnant women who need the services and protection."

The Bush administration is also directing its anti-choice agenda at youth. It has allocated $33 million to abstinence-only sex education programs, which, according to an Alan Guttmacher Institute study, are "medically inaccurate" means of preventing unwanted pregnancies. More general sex education programs teach the benefits of abstinence while also providing information about contraceptives. The abstinence-only programs, however, mention contraceptives only in terms of their failure rates.

In addition to these domestic policy losses for reproductive rights, President Bush recently cut $34 million in United Nations International Family Planning money. For all of his claims about the liberation of Afghan women, this measure is compatible with Bush's international family planning agenda. In his first week as president, Bush instituted the "global gag rule," controlling how international family planning organizations spend their funds. Under the gag rule, foreign family planning agencies may not receive US assistance if they provide abortion services, counseling or referrals for abortion, or lobby to make or keep abortions legal.

Though Planned Parenthood's Providence office hasn't experienced a marked increase in harassment since September 11, the agency is continuing to support passage of a buffer zone law, which would limit how close anti-abortion activists could come to the clinic during protests. Critics cite such measures as an undue restriction on free speech.

Issue Date: March 15 - 21, 2002