Taxpayer funding of abortion has been illegal since 1973, and strict annual audits of family-planning agencies overseas have never turned up a violation of that law. But his Gag Rule takes us in the opposite direction. Access to family-planning services reduces abortion by helping women avoid unwanted pregnancies.
Family planning allows women to choose when to have a child and how many children to have.
Family planning also helps to decrease maternal and infant mortality and to raise the status of women. The success of these services is evident around the globe. For example, in Russia, the International Planned Parenthood Federation opened an affiliate in 1991 and within only three years, the number of abortions performed in the country annually dropped by nearly 1 million. Yet, this organization stands to lose millions of dollars of funding under the Bush policy. Because the Gag Rule bars U.S. funds to any foreign organization that uses its own money to provide legal abortion, to provide information about the availability of legal abortions or to even talk publicly about its own country's abortion law.