Resist efforts to impose additional funding cuts and restrictions, including the Global Gag Rule, on U.S. reproductive health and population programs overseas. Repeal the Helms Amendment, which is interpreted by the U.S. government as a restriction on funding for most legal abortion services in its population assistance programs. Pending repeal, fund those abortions permitted under the Helms Amendment - to protect the woman's life, and in cases of rape and incest. Cease measuring program successes primarily by reductions in fertility rates and other quantitative indicators. The impact of these regressive policies falls most harshly on adolescents, low-income women, and those who live in rural areas.
States receive a cash bonus if they decrease illegitimacy while keeping abortion rates steady.
In addition, Congress has attempted to restrict adolescents' access to Title X services by proposing mandatory parental involvement requirements. Medicaid coverage, the principal source of public funding for low-income individuals for an array of services including reproductive health, has been severely limited since 1976. In 1998, more than half of the states enacted laws that restrict access to abortion, such as mandatory waiting periods and parental consent requirements. These conditions on abortion services limit women's reproductive autonomy. Facilitate access to comprehensive reproductive health care using a rights based, rather than a family-planning approach.