Population Explosion
POPULATION EXPLOSION -- (Senate - December 20, 2005)
Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I rise today to speak about developing countries around the world that are dealing with population explosions. As we near the end of the year, we are trying to wrap things up before the Senate goes out of session. But we continue to ignore this important issue.
This topic does not get very much attention here on the Senate floor, but in the developing world, there is a population explosion. Some experts believe that the population of Earth may top 9 billion by 2050. Eighty-eight percent of Americans believe that international population growth is either a major problem right now or that it will become one in the future. Almost all of the growth is occurring in countries that are the least able to govern, ensure jobs for, and care for their citizens.
But this is also about safe access to health care for women. Even though these countries are experiencing huge population growths, hundreds of thousands of women are dying each year from complications from pregnancy. These women do not have access to the health care that they need, especially reproductive health care.
In many poor countries around the world, nongovernmental organizations and medical professionals are working to make things better. They have set up clinics and reached out to the women and families in poor communities. They are doing great work. But their hands are tied because the Bush administration has imposed a political ideology on the world.
When President Bush took office in 2001, he signed an Executive order known as the global gag rule. It denies U.S. funds to any overseas health clinic unless it agrees not to use its own private, non-U.S. funds for anything related to abortion. What that means, is that if you are a medical professional living in an impoverished country trying to help people and save their lives, you are gagged from even talking about certain reproductive health services. The gag rule places limits on women and doctors that we would never accept here in the United States.
Earlier this year, the Senate passed an amendment to the Foreign Affairs Authorization Act to reverse the President's policy and ensure that health care clinics for women and families receive this much-needed funding. Unfortunately, this legislation has not passed by the full Senate. I am pleased that the Foreign Operations appropriations bill contains $34 million for the United Nations Populations Fund, UNPA, for this purpose. But in order to ensure that this money goes toward funding health care clinics for women and families in poor countries, we must overturn this global gag rule.
In closing, I would like to share the following article, which ran on December 3, 2005, with my colleagues because I believe that it provides some important food for thought as we continue to work on this important issue.
I ask unanimous consent that my remarks and the following article be printed in the RECORD.
http://thomas.loc.gov/