2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumReminder: What George W did on his FIRST DAY IN OFFICE!
Who remembers this?
Bush bans funds for international family planning groups that support abortion
24 January 2001
In one of his first actions as president, George W. Bush on Monday reinstated a ban first initiated under the Reagan administration which will deny US aid to international organizations that use their own money to provide abortions, counsel women on abortions or support pro-abortion lobbying of foreign governments. Clinton had lifted the banknown among its opponents as the global gag rulewhen he assumed office in 1993.
Bush timed his announcement to coincide with the twenty-eighth anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision of the US Supreme Court legalizing abortion. Thousands of anti-abortionists rallied outside the high court in Washington on Monday in their annual rally calling for the overturning of a woman's right to choose. The right to life forces, feeling emboldened with an ally in the White House, carried signs such as Michigan Loves Our Pro-Life President and It's War! Baby. A message from Bush was read out to the crowd, which said in part: We share a great goal: to work toward a day when every child is welcomed in life and protected in law.
International family planning organizations, however, were quick to point out that the effect of Bush's initiative will lead not to a culture of life but to increased poverty, suffering and death. It will result in the cutoff of family planning funds to some of the world's most impoverished women and families in Latin America, Africa, Asia and the countries of the former Soviet Union. Critics note that as a result more women will be denied contraceptive services, face unwanted pregnancies and die as a result of childbirth or illegal abortions. Funds for programs aimed at stopping sexual transmission of the HIV virus that causes AIDS will also be impacted, resulting in more disease and death.
Politics: President's action on first workday eclipses effort to focus on education. Protesters marking the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade roar approval at the news.
January 23, 2001|JAMES GERSTENZANG and JANET HOOK | TIMES STAFF WRITERS
WASHINGTON President Bush, on his first Monday in office, blocked government grants to international family planning groups that pay for abortions or abortion counseling with their own money.
Bush's decision, one of the first of his administration, reversed eight years of Clinton administration policy, turning the clock back to a policy established by President Reagan. It also overshadowed the new president's plan to focus his administration immediately on education reform.
In an executive order, Bush declared that "taxpayer funds should not be used to pay for abortions or advocate or actively promote abortion, either here or abroad." However, the federal government has not directly used its funds to pay for abortions overseas since 1973.
The day's events offered Bush a lesson on the extent and limit of presidential power. It also reminded Republicans in Congress, who fought with President Clinton annually over the abortion policy, of just how much new leverage they wield.
"That's when it really sinks in that it's a whole new world," said Michele Davis, spokeswoman for House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas). "We fought for half a loaf with Clinton and now it's done with the stroke of a pen."
But other Republicans showed that leading Congress can be like riding a tiger, because it is an institution with many competing agendas.
http://articles.latimes.com/2001/jan/23/news/mn-15827
misterhighwasted
(9,148 posts)I see no reason why they wouldn't repeat the same method this time.
katmondoo
(6,457 posts)I hated him before and more after he showed his cold feelings for women. He looked so proud of himself as he caused misery to so many poor women all over the world. Trump would be worse, much, much worse as it would include all of America plus some other hardline rules.
misterhighwasted
(9,148 posts)We're all on our own.
Life in the American gulag.
Equinox Moon
(6,344 posts)they really don't care about people. They advocate for killing people in all other instances. I don't get it.
LynneSin
(95,337 posts)Oh wait, yes I do.
GOP take away choice and access to affordable birth control plus teach our teenagers hokey messages like 'just say no'.
Like many women in this country the reason I never had an abortion is because of Planned Parenthood. When I was a broke 20-something, Planned Parenthood was there so I could get my yearly checkups.
robbob
(3,538 posts)Ever since Reagan aligned himself with the x-tian right wing "moral majority". No they don't give a shit about lives pre or post partum, but they KNOW the Dems are going to support woman's rights (and gay rights, and minority rights...), so they use this issue to make it impossible for anti-abortion voters to go Democratic.
Cosmocat
(14,572 posts)it fits VERY well into their authoritative mindset, and that it plays to their need to make women submissive is a plus one.
But, at its heart is about their need to push their morality (not having sex), of others, on to others.
ancianita
(36,133 posts)Madam45for2923
(7,178 posts)And realized that no way W. Bush was going to try to unite the country after the election fiasco and so many of us hated/resented him stealing the Presidency.
ancianita
(36,133 posts)lark
(23,156 posts)he signed an order that no one from Saudi Arabia was to be stopped from entering the US, even if they were on the terrorist watch kist - thus personally enabling 9/11.
What would drumpf do, end NATO to enable Russia conquering, as well as end the sanctions, revoke Obamacare and propose cutting taxes for real estate investors and the ultra rich. After that he'd let Pence rule, he'd have done everything he cared about.
jalan48
(13,883 posts)Please Democrats, no more photos of you hugging and laughing with the little moron.
Ligyron
(7,639 posts)They limited it in the US to the few lines that were already in existence.
Soon afterward it was revealed that most of those lines were owned by those in the Carlisle Group, iow those in their private cabal.
Madam45for2923
(7,178 posts)And Former Prez Reagan Alzheimer's was common knowledge.
Progression: 19942004
As the years went on, the disease slowly destroyed Reagan's mental capacity.[319] He was only able to recognize a few people, including his wife, Nancy.[319] He remained active, however; he took walks through parks near his home and on beaches, played golf regularly, and until 1999 he often went to his office in nearby Century City.[319]
Reagan suffered a fall at his Bel Air home on January 13, 2001, resulting in a broken hip.[325] The fracture was repaired the following day[326] and the 89-year-old Reagan returned home later that week, although he faced difficult physical therapy at home.[327] On February 6, 2001, Reagan reached the age of 90, becoming the third former president to do so (the other two being John Adams and Herbert Hoover, with Gerald Ford, George H. W. Bush and Jimmy Carter later reaching 90).[328] Reagan's public appearances became much less frequent with the progression of the disease, and as a result, his family decided that he would live in quiet semi-isolation with his wife Nancy. Nancy Reagan told CNN's Larry King in 2001 that very few visitors were allowed to see her husband because she felt that "Ronnie would want people to remember him as he was."[329] After her husband's diagnosis and death, Nancy Reagan became a stem-cell research advocate, urging Congress and President George W. Bush to support federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research, something Bush opposed. In 2009, she praised President Barack Obama for lifting restrictions on such research.[330] Nancy Reagan said that she believed it could lead to a cure for Alzheimer's.[331]
Death
Main article: Death and state funeral of Ronald Reagan
Reagan's casket lying in state in the United States Capitol rotunda
Reagan died of pneumonia, complicated by Alzheimer's disease,[332] at his home in Bel Air, California, on the afternoon of June 5, 2004.[333]
BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)He revoked that order.
Madam45for2923
(7,178 posts)BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)I never forgot that....yet so many others seem not to remember!