U.S. ABORTION DEBATE CONTINUES
The �Unborn Victims of Violence Act� Passes
A March 26 story by The New York Times reported that the Senate approved the Unborn Victims of Violence Act on March 25, voting 61-38 to make it a separate offense to harm the fetus in a federal crime against a pregnant woman. President Bush is expected to sign the measure quickly. The story noted that opponents denounced the bill as an effort to undermine the constitutional right to abortion by recognizing the fetus as a person. In a March 29 Times story, Gloria Feldt, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said the law �basically puts politicians in the examining room."

The New York Times March 29 editorial criticized the law: �Backers of the new law, like Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, said unequivocally during the Senate debate that it was �not about abortion,� but rather �about criminals who attack pregnant women.� These promises should be remembered when the law is invoked, as it inevitably will be, in efforts to scale back or end the right to abortion.� Similarly, a March 27 editorial by The Oregonian stressed, �Violence against women is a serious problem. But women should not have to pay for protection by sacrificing their rights.� Read: New York Times: March 26 article, March 29 article, March 29 editorial, The Oregonian

�Partial Birth� Abortion Ban at Issue in 3 Lawsuits
Even before President Bush signed into law in November a bill outlawing �partial-birth� abortion, opponents made the unusual step of filing three federal lawsuits to block it, reported the Associated Press on March 29. Abortion-rights supporters are challenging the first substantial limitation on abortion since the Supreme Court's landmark Roe v. Wade decision. The National Abortion Federation, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, American Civil Liberties Union, Center for Reproductive Rights and a handful of doctors sued in San Francisco, New York and Lincoln, Nebraska, to overturn the law. They said its language could criminalize more common types of abortion and could be a step toward overall abolition. Read: Associated Press, New York Times

Rulings on Subpoenas of Abortion Records
The New York Times reported March 20 that the Federal District Court in Manhattan ordered New York-Presbyterian Hospital to turn over to the Justice Department records on abortions performed there, saying disclosure would not unduly harm the hospital or its patients� privacy. The ruling conflicted with refusals by federal judges in Chicago and San Francisco to order release of abortion records. Legal analysts said the Supreme Court might have to resolve the conflict. Several abortion providers, suing to block use of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban passed by Congress last year, say it would bar medically essential procedures. Justice Department lawyers say they need to examine those doctors� records to test their assertions and defend the law. Read: New York Times

Pharmacists New Players in Abortion Debate
The Los Angeles Times ran a March 20 story on legislation to shield pharmacists from lawsuits or disciplinary action if they refuse as a matter of conscience to provide the morning-after contraceptive pill. Lawmakers now are weighing whether to guarantee that right in state law. Abortion-rights advocates say they are baffled by the flurry of legislation in Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Washington and Missouri, saying pharmacists should not be second-guessing patients and their physicians. "They have an ethical obligation to meet the needs of the patient," said Susanne Martinez, vice president of Planned Parenthood. Read: Los Angeles Times

SAVING WOMEN�S LIVES
Fighting Early Marriage in Burkina Faso
IRIN reported March 23 that in Burkina Faso, girls as young as eight are married off to men often older than their fathers, but the government is trying to eradicate this practice, alarmed by the rate of pregnancy complications in very young mothers. According to the United Nations Population Fund, (UNFPA), one in three girls is married in Burkina Faso before the age of 18. "The causes of early marriage are socio-cultural," explained Genevieve Ah Sue, UNFPA's local representative. "Traditions are strong�the local practice is for girls to marry when they are very young." UNFPA and the government have launched a program to combat early marriage in poor rural areas where it is particularly widespread. "There is a close link between reproductive health and poverty reduction," pointed out Ah Su. Read: IRIN, Inter Press Service

Afghan Midwives Teach Expectant Mothers Safe Practices
A March 17 story by The Christian Science Monitor (United States) told of a new breed of midwives who go house to house, teaching Afghan women about sanitation, childbirth and infant care. To westerners, the need for sanitary conditions at a birth may be obvious, but not necessarily in Afghanistan, where women may spread a layer of earth in the place where a mother will give birth as a way to protect the house. Perhaps it should come as no surprise that Afghanistan has the world�s second-highest maternal mortality rate. Besides providing life-saving information, midwives also hand out free sealed Safe Motherhood kits from UNFPA that contain a clean plastic sheet, soap, and a string and a razor for cutting the umbilical cord. Read: Christian Science Monitor

EDITORIALS AND OPINIONS
The New York Times ran a March 20 column by Nicholas Kristof that suggested: �The world needs a war on maternal mortality, and the U.S. could lead that effort. Yet maternal care rarely gets the priority or attention it deserves. Partly that's because the victims tend to be faceless, illiterate village women who carry little weight in their own families, let alone on the national or world agenda.� Kristof noted that some U.S. groups have made �heroic efforts to address maternal health, starting with medical missionaries and including the Averting Maternal Death and Disability program at Columbia University (www.amdd.hs.columbia.edu) and 34 Million Friends of UNFPA (www.unfpa.org/support/friends/34million.htm).� He added, �What is certain is that 500,000 women will die in pregnancy and childbirth this year and every year�completely unnecessarily�unless we confront this challenge.� Read: New York Times

A March 26 column by Joan Ryan in The San Francisco Chronicle (United States) noted, �The Bush administration has brilliantly chipped away at abortion in a string of little steps that largely have escaped widespread notice and thus widespread outrage.� Ryan cited examples: �In his first day in office, Bush reinstated the global gag rule policy that prevents U.S. money from funding any overseas clinic that performs or counsels clients about abortion. Bush's emissaries to international conferences proclaim that the U.S. recognizes that life begins at conception. For the third year in a row, Bush has canceled the U.S. contribution to the U.N. family-planning program.� Read: San Francisco Chronicle

The Chronicle also ran a March 30 op ed by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, (D-CA), saying the Unborn Victims of Violence Act will �clearly create a definition of life in federal law that will be used legally to further chip away at a woman's constitutional right to choose.� She said George W. Bush has been systematically attacking women's reproductive rights since the day he took office. �These attacks have gone largely unnoticed and unchallenged by the public. It is time that we challenge the anti-choice movement and their unabashed efforts to take away the fundamental right that a woman has to decide when and whether to become a mother. Thousands of women will travel from across the nation to Washington on April 25 to stand up for their rights in the March for Women's Lives. This demonstration comes at a time when women's rights have never been in such peril. We cannot go back to a time without choice.� Read: San Francisco Chronicle

The St. Petersburg Times< (United States) ran a March 21 column by Robyn Blumner on the failure of the virginity pledge. This written promise by young people to stay chaste until married is �a campaign littered with broken vows,� Blumner noted. The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health �found that pledgers were especially careless when they decided to dump their vows, with male teens using condoms at a 40 percent rate, rather than the 60 percent rate for those who didn't pledge.� Blumner added: �While virginity before marriage still has a nice ring to it for many people, it is worth noting that those places on earth that revere chastity tend to be steeped in religious fundamentalism and patriarchy. In Iran, Egypt and other Middle Eastern nations, a bride's virginity is so vital that some desperate women resort to hymnography, an illegal procedure that restitches part of the hymen enough to induce the all-important bleeding during sex. And still today in that region, young women who are not "untouched" are in danger of being murdered by male relatives in an honor killing.� She concluded: �Now, don't get me wrong. I agree that society should encourage young people - through comprehensive education about human sexuality and honest discussions - to delay sex until they are emotionally mature enough. But a simplistic, moralistic and apparently unrealistic pledge that leaves its takers at risk for undiagnosed STDs and early marriage is not the way to go.� Read: St. Petersburg Times

A March 17 editorial by The Boston Globe (United States) reported that a Bush speech marking International Women�s Week obscured actions his administration was taking almost simultaneously in Santiago, Chile, where it dropped its commitment�approved at a United Nations summit in Cairo 10 years ago�to the health and survival of millions of poor women abroad. The editorial noted that since Cairo, wider access to family planning, prenatal care, and education for girls has prevented 187 million unwanted pregnancies a year and millions more maternal or infant deaths. �For the Bush administration to claim that it cares for the human rights of women and then withdraw support for the Cairo agreement is a shocking abdication of responsibility and a cynical exercise in bait-and-switch.� Read: Boston Globe

The Chicago Sun-Times (United States) ran a March 19 op ed by Cokie and Steven Roberts noting that a girl who goes to school and stays there is much more likely to postpone marriage and childbirth. �Later childbirth results in lowering the overall fertility rate, which means higher per capita income and the increased ability of a woman to earn a living for herself and her family. And educated women provide better health care for themselves and their children, meaning lower maternal and infant mortality rates. In fact, a country's investment in education leads to a whole host of results that promote economic development.� They concluded: �Congress has taken note of this success and its long-term benefits. For the last three years, lawmakers have increased the president's foreign aid budget request for basic education. There are amendments pending to do the same this year, which need support. Not just because educating girls is the right thing to do, but because it works.� Read: Manila Times (Philippines) that featured a March 31 op ed by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the importance of girls education and empowerment.

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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. Redistri