a) We read clearly in this Report:
While the agencies participating in this study
have no specific recommendations to propose on abortion, the following issues are believed
important and should be considered in the context of a global population strategy.
ABORTION
1. Worldwide Abortion Practices
Certain facts about abortion need to be appreciated:
- No country has reduced its population growth without
resorting to abortion.
- Thirty million pregnancies are estimated to be
terminated annually by abortion throughout the world. ...
[There follows a brief report on various laws about this.]
The abortion statutes of many countries are not
strictly enforced.... Lack of medical personnel and facilities or conservative attitudes
among physicians and hospital administrators may effectively curtail access to abortion,
especially for economically or socially deprived women. ...
2. U.S. legislation and its policies relative to
abortion
A.I.D. Program
The predominant part of A.I.D.'s population
assistance program has concentrated on contraception or foresight methods. A.I.D.
recognized, however, that under developing country conditions foresight methods not only
are frequently unavailable but often fail due to ignorance, lack of preparation, misuse
and non-use. Because of these latter conditions, increasing numbers of women in the
developing world have been resorting to abortion, usually under unsafe and often lethal
conditions. Indeed, abortion, legal and illegal, now has became the most widespread
fertility control method in use in the world today. Since, in the developing world, the
increasingly widespread practice of abortion is conducted often under unsafe conditions,
A.I.D. sought through research to reduce health risks and other complications which
arise from the illegal and unsafe forms of abortion. One result has been the development
of the Menstrual Regulation Kit, a simple, inexpensive, safe and effective means of
fertility control; which is easy to use under LDC conditions.
[There follow considerations regarding the restrictions
imposed by the American administration of the time on the use of AID funds for abortion.
These considerations end as follows:]
A.I.D. funds may continue to be used for research
relative to abortion since the Congress specifically chose not to include research among
prohibited activities.
One major effect of the amendment and policy
determination is that A.I.D. will not be involved in further development or promotion of
the Menstrual Regulation Kit. However, other donors or organizations may become interested
in promoting with their own funds dissemination of this promising fertility control method
...1
b) Between the twelve years of the Reagan and
Bush Administrations, it was U.S. official policy to not fund population programs
that used abortion. In fact, the pro-life tendencies of these two presidents sought to
diminish public funding for abortion in general. However, the Clinton Administration
rescinded the advances of the two prior administrations. This was expressed with great
clarity in 1993 by Timothy E. Wirth, the U.S.
representative:
"President Clinton is
deeply committed to placing population among the top international priorities of
America. ... The government of the USA believes that the Cairo Conference [Sept. 5-13,
1994] will be remiss in its duty if it does not develop recommendations and
guidelines regarding abortion. Our position consists in supporting reproductive choice,
including access to successful abortion." 2
_________________________________________
1 These quotations are taken from pp. 182-184 of the
Report.
2 See the statement presented by Timothy Wirth on May 11,
1993, to the second committee preparing for the International Conference in Cairo (Sept.
5-13, 1994) on population and development.
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