PUSH
JOURNAL MEDIA SUMMARY
June
16-30, 2008
UNFPA
Denied Funding For Seventh Straight Year: On June 26, Oneworld.net reported
that the Bush administration has refused to fund the UNFPA, United Nations Population
Fund for the seventh straight year. The Bush administration again cited unfounded
allegations that UNFPA was “complicit” in coerced abortions and sterilizations
in China. Rep. Carolyn Maloney of New York said she was “deeply disappointed,
but not surprised,” calling it proof the administration remains in a “retrograde
rut” and is “blinded by political extremism.” Read: Oneworld.net
SEXUAL
AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH AND RIGHTS
Anti-contraception
Pharmacies More Common: On June 16, The Washington Post reported that a “pro-life”
pharmacy will soon open in Chantilly, VA and will refuse to sell all forms of
birth control, including condoms and birth control pills. Family planning advocates
say these pharmacies, which are becoming more common, make it harder for women
to obtain safe birth control options. "I'm very, very troubled by this,"
said Marcia Greenberger of the National Women's Law Center. "Contraception
is essential for women's health. A pharmacy like this is walling off an essential
part of health care. That could endanger women's health." Read: The Washington
Post
New
Poll Finds Opposition to Abortion Penalties: On June 18, IPS reported that
a poll by World Public Opinion (WPO), a Web site managed by the Programme on International
Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, found the majority of citizens
in 17 out of 18 countries polled oppose punitive measures such as fines and imprisonment
for those who give or receive an abortion. "While it does appear that many
people around the world are uncomfortable with abortion, few think that the government
should use punitive means to try to prevent it," said WPO director Steven
Kull. Read: IPS
Grand
Jury Becomes Abortion Battlefield:
On June 17, The New York Times reported on a new tactic by anti-choice advocates
to stop Dr. George Tiller and his clinic in Wichita, Kansas, one of the nation’s
few providers of late-term abortions, from practicing the procedure. His opponents
use a state statute, adopted in 1887, that allows ordinary citizens to petition
that a grand jury investigate an alleged crime. “This is an abuse of the
grand jury system,” said State Sen. John L. Vratil, a Republican on the Senate
Judiciary Committee. “It’s being used in a political way to further
a political cause, and that was never the purpose of the grand jury system in
Kansas.” Read: The New York Times
Filipinos
Test Catholic Church:
On June 20, The Wall Street Journal reported that due to recent food shortages,
economic difficulties and a steadily growing population, advocates are increasingly
demanding family planning options for Filipinos. Prominent economists and big-name
politicians are also demanding that the Roman Catholic Church condone family planning
in order to steady the economy. The Church has pressured the government to endorse
natural family planning methods over modern and effective contraceptives. Read:
The Wall Street Journal
Canadians
are Adamantly Pro-Choice:
On June 22, The Toronto Sun reported that in a new online poll, 91 percent of
Canadian respondents support abortions under certain circumstances, while only
5 percent would outlaw it altogether. "Canada is very solidly a pro-choice
country. There is no doubt about that," Carolyn Egan, a spokesman for the
Ontario Coalition for Abortion Clinics, told the Sun. "I think there is a
minority in this country who feel abortion is wrong ... but I think we're moving
beyond [the debate]." Read: The Toronto Sun
SAVING
WOMEN’S LIVES
Yemen
to Fight Female Genital Mutilation: On June 26, The Gulf News (Yemen) reported
that UNICEF and local advocates have a new plan to eliminate female genital mutilation.
UNICEF estimates that 70 million girls have been subjected to the practice in
the Middle East and Africa. "We cannot let this harmful practice take its
toll on the health and development of girls and women. We are ready to accelerate
the abandonment of FGM in one generation," said UNICEF's Yemen representative,
Aboudou Karimou Adjibade. Read: The Gulf News (Yemen)
New
Campaign to Prevent Violence against Women: On June 25, The Hindu (India)
reported that a new campaign by the United Nations Development Fund for Women
(UNIFEM) plans to gather one million names through the "Say NO to Violence
against Women campaign" Web site to call attention to the issue worldwide.
Representatives from 10 countries signed a memorandum in Vienna to tackle the
issue on a global scale. Read: The Hindu
Immigrants
in France Protest FGM:
On June 23, UN Integrated Regional Information Network (Kenya) reported on La
Palabre, an organization to raise awareness of the dangers of female genital mutilation
(FGM). La Palabre is working to eliminate FGM in France, where an estimated 500,000
immigrant girls and women undergo the procedure every year. FGM is illegal in
France but parents will often take their children to have the procedure performed
in private. Read: UN Integrated Regional Information Network (Kenya) – AAGM
Council Discusses
Rape as Weapon of War:
On June 20, several media outlets reported on the U.N. Security Council’s
"Women, Peace, and Security" meeting on sexual violence against women
in conflict areas. "Rape is a crime that can never be condoned, yet women
and girls in conflict situations around the world have been subjected to widespread
and deliberate acts of sexual violence," said U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice, who chaired an open debate. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon promised
to appoint a special U.N. envoy tasked entirely with advocating an end to violence
against women. Read: IPS, Radio Free Europe, Vietnamese News Agency (VNA)
Victims of Violence
Bond Together: On
June 17, The Washington Post reported on Betty Makoni, a rape victim as a girl
in Zimbabwe, who is now a prominent activist working to prevent sexual assault
in her community. She is one of an emerging network of female leaders who started
programs in their communities, branched out to the national level and allied with
global organizations to provide protection through education, legal counseling
and grants. Makoni has lobbied the U.S. Congress to pass the International Violence
Against Women Act, which aims to integrate efforts to end gender-based violence
into U.S. foreign assistance programs. “It is essential that American legislators
look at and be forced to deal with this issue pragmatically as a leading public
health problem in the world," said Kavita Ramdas, head of the Global Fund
for Women. Read: The Washington Post
WOMEN’S
EQUALITY
Women
Must be Included in Aid Plans: On June 16, IPS reported that an Italian human
rights groups is saying women’s needs must be included in plans for disseminating
foreign aid in Africa. As women are a majority of the poor, aid cannot be effective
unless it is a central issue of women’s rights. "Aid is not just about
aid, but is about how it impacts on the livelihoods of people; and aid effectiveness
should mean development effectiveness," said Patricia Blankson-Akapo of the
Network for Women's Rights in Ghana. Read: IPS
Women
Leaders Ask for Aid:
On June 22, IPS reported on the 8th Civicus World Assembly, which brings together
nonprofit and organizational leaders from all over the world to discuss the need
for gender-specific aid. Seven of the eight UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
involve women’s concerns, yet many governments ignore the need to appropriate
aid to woman-specific issues. "Unless leaders both at the international and
national level ensure that money reaches women, no real development will take
place," said Elisa Peter, deputy coordinator of the United Nations Non-governmental
Liaison Service. Read: IPS
POPULATION
World
Population to Hit 7 Billion by 2012: On June 19, the Associated Press reported
that a new projection from the U.S. Census Bureau found that world population,
growing at a rate of 1.2 percent per year, will hit 7 billion by 2012. The United
States is the world’s third most populous nation with 304 million residents,
right behind China and India. India will surpass China by 2012, the bureau said.
The impact of accelerated population growth will depend on the use of already
strained natural resources. Industrialized nations now account for the majority
of oil and natural resource use, but their proportion is declining. "You
can easily see the effect of rapid population growth in developing countries,"
said Carl Haub, a demographer at the Population Reference Bureau. Read: Associated
Press
EDITORIALS
and COLUMNS: On June 23, IPS published an op-ed by Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, executive
director of UNFPA, and Theresa Shaver, director of The White Ribbon Alliance for
Safe Motherhood, about the status of MDG 5: to improve maternal health by providing
universal access to reproductive health care and reducing maternal death by 75
percent by 2015. Without advances in medical care delivery, antibiotics, better
obstetric procedures and control of infections, Goal 5 will not be achieved in
Asia or Africa for another 70 years at the earliest, they wrote. Read: IPS
On June 11, the Tucson
Citizen published an op-ed by Donna P. Hall, president and CEO of the Women Donors
Network (WDN), about the evolution of family planning as a human right. She described
a WDN poll that found “very strong support for the idea that family planning
is a requirement for women's human rights. An overwhelming majority - 78 percent
- told researchers that they agreed with this statement: ‘For women to achieve
equality, they must have access to family planning services, including birth control
and contraception.’ The United States should pledge with renewed determination
to make sure every woman can plan when and how often to become a mother.”
Read: Tucson Citizen
On
June 16, another Nicolas Kristof column in The New York Times concerned a meeting
of the UN Security Council to discuss sexual violence worldwide. The session,
sponsored by the United States, examined rape as a weapon of war and drew attention
to an issue common in conflict zones around the world. Kristof wrote, “Systematic
rape has properly been found by international tribunals to constitute a crime
against humanity, and it thrives in part because the world shrugs. The UN could
do far more to provide health services to victims of mass rape and to insist that
peacekeepers at least try to stop it.” Read: The New York Times
On June 26, New York
Times columnist Nicholas Kristof condemned the Bush administration decision to
deny funding to UNFPA for the seventh straight year: “One of the major challenges
around the world is the need for family planning, as well as assistance in fighting
AIDS and maternal mortality. That’s UNFPA’s cause, and it’s appalling
that the U.S. is for the seventh straight year boycotting this worthy effort.”
Read: The New York Times
On
June 24, The State News (Michigan) published an op-ed by Keiara Tenan about the
dire need for comprehensive sex education and affordable contraception to prevent
teen pregnancy: “According to Advocates for Youth, low-income teens between
the ages of 15 and 19 account for 73 percent of all pregnancies in that age group.
I assume that if contraception was more affordable, that statistic would be a
lot lower. I know that if contraception was more affordable and sex education
was more of a priority in schools, a lot of young women would still be playing
the role of teen instead of mommy.” Read: The State News
On
June 22, The Korea Times published an editorial about the benefits of addressing
gender issues within development plans and foreign aid. Multiple studies, such
as the Copenhagen Consensus, have repeatedly shown that reducing disparities in
gender equality has big economic rewards: “There may be some losses from
electing women because they tend to have less political experience than men, but
the record in India suggests that if it took 20 years to establish a 30 percent
share of women in local positions in other countries, the benefits would be at
least double the costs of achieving this. Being a woman need not and should not
be among the greatest challenges of life.” Read: The Korea Times
On June 17, Alternet.org
published a column by Marjorie Signer, director of communications for the Religious
Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC), charging that the lack of family planning
language in the pending PEPFAR funding bill undermines the fight against AIDS.
“It is our moral duty to challenge our government to adopt the most effective,
humane and just policy to contain the HIV/AIDS pandemic, without ideological restrictions
and constraints,” she wrote. Read: Alternet.org
---
The
above summary is produced by the Communications Consortium Media Center, 401 Ninth
Street, NW, Suite 450, Washington, DC 20004, 202.326.8700. Redistribution is encouraged
with credit to CCMC.
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