AIDS Threatens Economic Stability: South Africa
A July 23 story by Xinhua General News Service reported on a World Bank finding that the threat of economic collapse looms over South Africa unless it combats its AIDS pandemic more urgently. The report, titled �Long-run Economic Costs of AIDS: Theory and an Application to South Africa,� warns that HIV/AIDS causes greater long-term damage to national economies than previously assumed. However, a July 29 story by Business Day (South Africa) said Finance Minister Trevor Manuel dismissed the report as a "scare story."

SAVING WOMEN�S LIVES
Jamaican Legislators Propose Virginity Tests and Sterilization
Associated Press reported July 30 that two Jamaican legislators are proposing virginity tests for schoolgirls and sterilization for young women with three or more children in order to reduce unwanted pregnancies. Legislator Sharon Hay-Webster suggested the sterilization idea during a late session of Parliament, saying a breakdown in family values has led to an increase in teenage pregnancy and a bigger welfare burden. �The state cannot cope with the responsibility of so many unwanted child births,� Hay-Webster said. �We are taking care of people in the constituency from the womb to the tomb.� Hay-Webster did not estimate the costs of unwanted pregnancies to the government, but said, �The situation is getting to the stage where we may have to make it mandatory for young mothers to undergo tubal ligation after their third or fourth pregnancy.� Carolyn Gomes, director of the local human rights group Jamaicans for Justice, called the plan �a step backward� and questioned its legality. �It's a ridiculous suggestion that tramples on people's rights and fails to address underlying problems in society,� Gomes said. �Public education is what's needed, not this.�

Gates Foundation Funds Project to Improve Maternal and Child Health in Afghanistan
Scientists from the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will use a $1 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to fund two projects geared toward Afghan mothers and newborn children, reported The Atlanta Journal and Constitution (GA). "The health challenges facing women in Afghanistan are immense and far-reaching," said John Lehnherr of the CDC's National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Another group of scientists will lead a project to improve hygiene and make safe water available to staff and patients at major hospitals and clinics in Kabul. They will distribute a low-cost kit to help purify water. Read: Atlanta Journal and Constitution

Women Gain Rights in Africa
The Guardian (London) reported July 31 that seven years of lobbying at pan-African meetings by Julienne Ondziel-Gnelenga, a Congolese lawyer and former vice-president of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, have at last been rewarded. A summit of African foreign ministers in the Mozambique capital, Maputo, has just adopted a draft agreement, drawn up by Ms Ondziel-Gnelenga, that will make women's rights a key concern of the African Union. The story noted that female genital mutilation, which too many Africans try to justify as an age-old tradition, will be made illegal. The minimum marriage age is now set at 18. The agreement also defines other new rights for African women: they will be entitled use birth control and to seek an abortion in the case of rape or incest. "Unfortunately the draft remains ambiguous on the issue of polygamy," says Ms Ondziel-Gnelenga. "It doesn't ban it, but simply encourages monogamy. There was a big fight over that, and we had to give in."

As Abortion Rates Decline in Russia, Government Scales Back on Liberal Law
According to a July 27 story by the Associated Press, abortion, once the country's primary means of birth control, is in steady decline in post-Soviet Russia as family planning methods become more widely used. But the rate is still staggering: For every 10 births there are about 13 abortions, compared with roughly three in the United States. The Russian Health Ministry has proposed scaling back the liberal policy whereby women can cite a wide range of non-medical reasons�being unmarried, poor, already raising three kids�to obtain an abortion well into the second trimester of pregnancy. The new proposal would still guarantee abortions in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy to anyone. But after that, most women�including rape victims�would be turned away. "Abortion should never in any society be the primary method of birth control," said Vladimir Kulakov, a leading gynecologist and head of the Scientific Center for Obstetrics and Gynecology. Read: Associated Press

Conflict Zones Have Soaring Birth Rates
The Associated Press reported July 22 that political unrest and war have affected the ability of many developing nations in Africa and Asia to promote family planning and literacy programs that could reduce soaring birth rates and poverty levels, revealed the latest edition of Population Reference Bureau�s �World Population Data Sheet.� The study confirmed that most projected population growth will come in developing nations. Among them are two critical countries in the U.S. war on terrorism: Pakistan, where the population will grow 134 percent by 2050 to 349 million; and Afghanistan, which will grow at the same pace to 67 million. The population in the Congo, which has been torn by civil war, could more than triple during the same period, to 181 million. �The governments don't have the wherewithal to fund the [family planning] programs. And any family planning program is interrupted by political strife, and there's plenty of that going around,� said Carl Haub of PRB. Read: Associated Press

Acid Attacks Continue in Pakistan and Bangladesh
"It was like burning in hell," says Zarina Ramzan, recalling how acid melted away the skin and flesh on her face, neck and chest, according to a July 28 story by BBC News. In Pakistan, dozens of women are burned every year by acid, a form of violence that is on the rise. Last year a report by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said: "Particularly alarming was the soaring rate of cases of mutilation by the pouring of acid over women, in a crime that acted to scar them permanently, both physically and emotionally." In Bangladesh, a 24-year-old man was sentenced to death for throwing acid on his nine-year-old bride, disfiguring and blinding her for life, reported the Associated Press on July 29. The attack occurred five years ago after the man tried to establish sexual relations with the girl, who refused to go to her husband's home. Read: BBC News and Associated Press

U.S. FOREIGN AID
AIDS Bill Passes House
The House approved a $17.1 billion foreign aid bill July 24, including two new initiatives by President Bush to fight AIDS in Africa and poverty around the world, according to a story by the Associated Press. Democratic critics said the AIDS money was short of what was both promised and needed. It includes $1.43 billion for HIV/AIDS, the first installment of a five-year $15 billion plan to combat the AIDS pandemic in Africa and the Caribbean, and $800 million for the Millennium Challenge Account, a plan to target assistance to countries striving to carry out economic and political reform. Read: Associated Press

Women Laud Millennium Challenge Account Rules
Women�s Enews reported July 25 that women's rights advocates gave a rare round of applause to the Republican-controlled House of Representatives last week when it passed rules requiring foreign aid recipients to take women's experiences into account. "This is a victory for women everywhere," said Ritu Sharma, Executive Director of D.C.-based Women's EDGE, a group that lobbies for more equitable trade policies. "Development strategies cannot be effective without targeting [women] and drawing on their input, talent and hard work." The House voted July 16 in favor of legislation proposed by President Bush that would make a sizable opening deposit in the proposed Millennium Challenge Account, a global assistance fund that would donate $10 billion in foreign aid over the next three years. The legislative language would require government officials in countries seeking grants to consult with local women's organizations while developing their plans. They would also be required to delineate the impact proposed investments would have on both their male and female populations. Read: Women�s Enews

EDITORIALS AND OPINIONS
The Orlando Sentinel (FL) ran a July 20 commentary by Paul Micou, a member of the board of directors of the U.S. Committee for UNFPA, defending the agency. �UNFPA has no hidden agenda,� he wrote. �It is doing essential work that no other agency is doing, operating in many countries where the U.S. Agency for International Development does not. With a 34-year track record, UNFPA has repeatedly proven its value. It deserves strong vocal and financial support from all Americans, and from their elected representatives in Congress. Anything less is a betrayal of the world's women.� Read: Orlando Sentinel

Both The Tallahassee Democrat (FL) and The Day (CT) ran an op ed by Gloria Feldt, President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, on July 29. In it, she states, �Ever since President Bush imposed his global gag rule on family planning programs in 2001, the world's poorest women have paid an awful price.� Feldt also noted, �The tragic irony of the global gag rule is that by cutting off funding to family planning organizations, it has actually increased the number of unintended pregnancies and illegal, unsafe abortions�and consequently needless deaths.� She concluded, �President Bush has developed quite a record of saying he supports women's health programs, and then cutting any program that does not fall into line with his narrow, ideologically driven position. Congress should respond by restoring U.S. funding for UNFPA.� Read: Tallahassee Democrat and The Day

The Sacramento Bee (California) ran a July 19 editorial that noted, �The House's action deprives UNFPA of a sum equaling about one-eighth of its total budget. As a result, abortions will still take place but in less healthy circumstances, HIV will more easily be spread and poor families in need of education and assistance will not receive it.� It concluded, �The only hope in this dismal picture is that the House vote was narrow�thus keeping alive the faint possibility that some who voted with the majority may yet let the facts of the case persuade them to do the right thing.� The Kansas City Star (MO) ran a July 20 editorial that noted, �The U.S. House made a disappointing mistake recently in voting against restoring federal dollars to the United Nations Population Fund.� It concluded, �The Bush administration is wrong on this issue, and the House unfortunately has followed along.� A July 23 editorial by The Sarasota Herald-Tribune (Florida) said the vote had �punished an agency for a �crime� it didn't commit and doomed countless women to the consequences. It's cold, it's counterproductive and it's irresponsible.� The editorial concluded, �All funding decisions, however, should be based in reason�a quality that seems remarkably absent in this case.� Read: Sacramento Bee, Kansas City Star, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, The Herald (SC) and Peoria Journal Star (IL)

The Chattanooga Times Free Press (TN) ran a column on July 21 by Steve Barrett that praised the vote and President Bush�s promise to veto any bill that includes money for UNFPA. �If whatever compromise the House and Senate reach on the measure includes that funding, he should stand by his vow. Voluntary abortion is bad enough. Demanding the death of a baby that a couple wishes to have is even more horrifying.�

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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