South Africa: HIV/AIDS Causes Demographic Shift
Cape Times (South Africa) reported June 25 that so many women have died in the HIV/AIDS pandemic that the country�s ratio of men to women has changed, said Alan Whiteside, director of the University of Natal's Health Economics and HIV/AIDS Research Division. "The natural gender balance was that there were slightly fewer adult men than women. Now there is a ratio of 120 males to 100 females. This is social engineering like we have never seen before and it is a critical question no one has addressed." Read: Cape Times

Traditional Healer Enlisted in Fight against HIV/AIDS
According to a June 30 story by The Christian Science Montor, both President Bush and WHO have recognized a role for traditional healers and their holistic approach. The Bush Administration has taken notice, albeit cautiously. The fact sheet on President Bush's recent $15 billion pledge to fight AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean, signed into law last month, includes using traditional healers "trained in standard clinical evaluations and distribution of medication pack refills," to disseminate aid and advice in rural areas. As well, the West has begun to recognize their role as physicians. A 2001 study by the World Health Organization following the treatment of HIV patients in Zimbabwe using traditional, herbal medicine over a six-month period reported "encouraging results." Read: Christian Science Montior

SAVING WOMEN�S LIVES
Nepal Women Still in Jail Despite Legalized Abortion Law
Nepal legalized abortion last year, but nearly 60 women are still jailed on abortion charges, a women's rights group said, according to a June 26 story by the Associated Press. Until last September, all abortions were prohibited and violators risked being sentenced to between three years and life in prison. Then the government passed a law allowing women to terminate unwanted pregnancies. "Our study shows that there are 59 women who are still in jail on charges of abortion," said Sapana Malla Pradhan of the Forum for Women, Law and Development. AP noted that legalizatio occurred because hundreds of Nepalese women were dying each year from bleeding and infections from unsafe abortions. Read: Associated Press

Women in Peru Change Stance on Tubal Litigations
Tubal ligations made headlines in the late 1990s when women's groups and conservative Catholic organizations accused the government of former President Alberto Fujimori of forcibly sterilizing scores of poor, often illiterate women in an effort to lower birth rates, according to a June 26 story by the Associated Press. However, since Fujimori was ousted in a corruption scandal, women's groups have become strange political bedfellows to the disgraced former regime by defending its family planning strategy. "We do not condone forced sterilizations, but no one can deny that Fujimori's program was excellent in terms of access and information," said Susana Chavez of the women's group Manuela Ramos.

Family Planning Groups and Clergy Collaborate in Bangladesh
A quiet revolution is under way as an unlikely combination of feminist population planners and the country's orthodox clergy team up to combat Bangladesh's burgeoning population, reported The Christian Science Monitor on June 17. "We have involved religious leaders in the population control program and it has shown its positive results in the last few years, but we need to bring the birth rate down further," said Bangladesh Foreign Minister Murshid Khan. Bangladesh's population growth rate stands at a remarkable 1.8 percent, down from 4.2 percent in 1980. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare predicts the population will grow to about 210 million by the year 2020, a bleak scenario for this country where half the people live below the poverty line and malnutrition levels are high. "About 45 percent of the population is under the age of 15. As these people enter the age of fertility, there is going to be another population explosion here," said Shahid Hossain, deputy director of the Family Planning Association of Bangladesh, said. Read: Christian Science Monitor

Dutch Floating Family Planning Clinic Goes to Poland
The New York Times reported June 24 that a Dutch group called Women on Waves intends to take the Langenort, a Dutch-registered tugboat that features a mobile clinic, to Poland in order to offer a short cruise into international waters to Polish women in need of early-term abortions.. A team of doctors will examine the women and then administer the abortion-inducing drug RU-486 before taking them back. The Times story noted that Rebecca Gomperts, 36, the physician who created Women on Waves, does not pretend that her tugboat by itself can do much to alter the status of Polish women. "It's not a structural solution," she said. "The only structural solution is when the Polish abortion law changes." According to a June 25 story by BBC News, the use of abortion pills is banned in Poland. Under Polish law, terminations are only allowed when the pregnancy threatens a woman's mental or physical health, the fetus is damaged, or in cases of rape or incest. Read: New York Times, BBC News, Reuters and Associated Press

Social Change Needed to Stop Female Genital Mutilation
According to a June 23 story by the Associated Press, African and Arab officials and activists have called for �an ongoing process of social change leading to the adoption of legislation against FGM." The meeting in Egypt was part of the international "Stop FGM" campaign initiated by a private organization, the Association of Italian Women for Development, and sponsored by the European Commission. AP noted that an estimated 100 million to 130 million females have been circumcised, and that another 2 million girls undergo the procedure each year, mostly in Africa, the Middle East and some Asian countries. This tradition, although banned in many African nations, is still thought essential in many societies to tame a woman's sexual desires. Emigrants continue the practice in their new homes, making it an increasing issue in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Canada.

Fertility Rates in Spain and United States Plummet
The Christian Science Monitor reported on June 26 that in 1976, Spanish women birthed an average of 2.3 children each. Since 1996, the figure has dropped to 1.13, according to the United Nations Population Fund � well below the 2.1 rate necessary to replenish the population. Worldwide, only Bulgaria, Latvia, and Ukraine have lower rates. The story noted that women's advocates list a host of disincentives to childbearing. In Spain as well as Italy and Germany, two other European countries with falling birthrates, day care remains scarce and men tend not to help around the house. Employment discrimination against women is still prevalent, as are salary gaps between the sexes. On June 26, Associated Press reported similar trends in America's birth rate that fell to a record low last year, said the Health and Human Services Department. But the percentages of premature and low-birth-weight babies climbed, continuing the rise of recent years. The birth rate was 13.9 per 1,000 persons in 2002, HHS announced, compared to 14.1 a year ago. Read: Christian Science Monitor, Associated Press and Los Angeles Times

U.S. ABORTION POLITICS
Poll Finds New Set of Priorities for U.S. Women
According to a June 25 story by USA Today, a poll released by the Center for the Advancement of Women says domestic violence and sexual assault come in way ahead of preserving abortion rights as priority issues for women. The poll also finds that motherhood, although important, is not viewed as a must for a complete life. The group's president, Faye Wattleton, calls the study the first that probes ''this broadly and this deep'' into what she calls ''a new set of priorities for women.'' The story mentioned that findings in the report, �Progress and Perils: New Agenda for Women,� will be of interest to politicians running for office and to those watching for a change in the U.S. Supreme Court that may affect the right to abortion. Fewer than half (41 percent) of women polled cite preserving abortion rights as a priority, and 92 percent list domestic violence and sexual assault as a primary concern. A close second (90 percent) is equal pay for equal work. About one-third (30 percent) say abortion should be generally available, and another one-third (34 percent) would restrict it to cases of rape, incest or a life-threatening condition; 17 percent would make it illegal. Read: USA Today

�Jane Roe� Asks for Motion to Overturn Roe vs. Wade
A June 25 story by The Chicago Tribune (IL) reported that Norma McCorvey, the plaintiff known as "Jane Roe" in Roe vs. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court case that legalized abortion, filed a motion in court in Dallas asking that the courts overturn the ruling based on new evidence that abortion is harmful to women. McCorvey, who has become an anti-abortion activist, has said she regretted her role in Roe vs. Wade, and last week she said the Supreme Court decision is no longer valid because of that evidence. To bolster the case, McCorvey's lawyer and his team from the San Antonio-based Justice Foundation gathered affidavits from 1,000 women who have had abortions, describing the physical pain and emotional trauma they said resulted from ending their pregnancies. Sarah Weddington, the abortion rights activist and attorney who originally represented McCorvey, told the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram (TX) that she doubts the court will take McCorvey's request seriously. "We might as well talk about the moon falling out of the sky first," she said. Read: Chicago Tribune, Associated Press and BBC News

NEWS ABOUT UNFPA
UNFPA and EngenderHealth Report Maps Fistula in Africa
At a June 18 press conference in New York, UNFPA and EngenderHealth released a new report, �Obstetric Fistula Needs Assessment: Findings from Nine African Countries.� On June 19, the Associated Press described the study as finding that more than two million women suffer from this serious complication of pregnancy that can easily be cured, and in Africa many risk being ostracized by their families because of it. The condition, obstetric fistula, is so unpleasant that it isn't discussed in many African countries where it is prevalent, and as a result the number of girls and women suffering in silence has grown, said the report. UNFPA and EngenderHealth called for African governments silent for too many years to tackle the problem. "We hope this report will sound a global alarm about fistula," said Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, UNFPA's Executive Director. "Most women living with fistula today suffer in silence, unaware that a simple cure is available.� Read: Associated Press, Reuters, Inter Press Service, Voice of America and The Monitor (Uganda)

New York Times Columnist Talks about Recent Columns on Africa
In a June 25 interview on National Public Radio�s show �Fresh Air,� New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, who has written many pieces in support of UNFPA, said: �Reproductive health care is just one of the ways in which you can help poor countries the most, because once you save children's lives for very small amounts of money, you save the lives of mothers for tiny amounts of money, then they have fewer children in turn as they know their children will survive, and they then provide those kids more education and so on�So the notion that we were cutting off funding to the UN Population Fund just went against everything I believed about how we can help Africa and Asia for that matter.� Listen to: Fresh Air

[NOTE: See Ms. Magazine�s Summer 2003 issue for a special report, �Global Sex Rules; The Price of Silence,� by Michele Kort, on the Bush administration�s global gag rule on reproductive health.]

Population Institute and FPA of Kenya Honored
Associated Press reported June 19 that the winner of this year's United Nations Population Award urged the United States to resume its leadership in funding international efforts to reduce rapid population growth. The US Congress appropriated $34 million last year for the UN Population Fund, but conservative activists opposed the funding on grounds it was being used for forced abortions and sterilizations in China. Even though a US government fact-finding team found no evidence of this, President Bush refused to release the money. Werner Fornos, president of the Washington-based Population Institute, received the 22nd annual award to an individual from Nane Annan, wife of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The Family Planning Association of Kenya received the institutional award. "We support all means of family planning, from natural methods for those for whom it works, to modern medically approved methods," Fornos said. "We do not accept abortion as a method of family planning. For abortion, like war, is a failure of society to come to grips with a much more fundamental problem--in this case, the prevention of unintended pregnancies."

MILLIONS OF CHILDREN COULD BE SAVED AT LOW COST: STUDY
Associated Press reported June 26 that in a series of articles this week in The Lancet medical journal, experts say inexpensive lifesaving measures � such as breast feeding, insecticide-treated bed nets, flu shots, antibiotics, newborn resuscitation and clean childbirth � are not reaching the mothers and children who need them most. "We have dropped the ball," said one of the experts, Cesar Victora, professor of epidemiology at the Federal University of Pelotas in Brazil. "Child survival has fallen off the international agenda ... we need now a second revolution to finish this job." UNICEF spokeswoman Marjorie Newman-Williams said, "The easy gains have been made. We have now plateaued because the strategies we have to put in place are more difficult. "Those three [lifesaving measures] heavily depend on women's time, women's knowledge and availability," Newman-Williams said. "And to reduce neonatal mortality, you have to focus on women's health. This is not a child health intervention." Read: Associated Press and The Lancet

OPINIONS AND EDITORIALS
UNITED STATES: U.S. Funding Cuts Hurt Women Suffering from Fistula
Toronto Star columnist, Michele Landsberg�s June 22 column on UNFPA and EngenderHealth�s report on fistula in Africa noted that the official number of two million women who suffer from fistula accounts only for those who report to medical facilities for help, and falls far short of the gruesome reality. Landsberg urged: �Blame cultural practices that stint young girls of adequate food, medical care and education, and force them to marry and bear children far too early, before their narrow bodies are ready. In some areas, for example, girls are forced to marry at the time of first menstruation to ensure virginity. (Virginity, of all meaningless attributes!) Blame wrong-headed African governments that perpetuate sex discrimination. Blame George Bush, strutting hero of the anti-choice movement, for vindictively cutting off $34 million in aid to the UN Population Fund.� Read: Toronto Star

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer (WA) ran a June 19 op ed by Peter Kostmayer, President of Population Connection: �Members of the Bush administration have stated repeatedly that women will not be forgotten in the rebuilding, but many have wondered aloud if they can be trusted to keep their promise. The administration's abysmal record on reproductive health issues, including re-instituting the global gag rule that limits discussion about family planning services (even in countries where all services are legal) and de-funding the United Nations Population Fund, does not give advocates for women's health much hope.� Kostmayer continued, �The best way to improve conditions is to support the work of the UN Population Fund, the world's largest international source of funding for population and reproductive health programs. The fund's work has been successful enough to gain the respect and financial support of every industrialized country in the world, with the lone exception of the United States.� Read: Seattle Post-Intelligencer

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The above summary was written by Elena Cabatu and Kathy Bonk at the Communications Consortium Media Center, 1200 New York Avenue, NW, Suite 300, Washington, DC 20005, 202/326-8700. Redistributi