Bush wants to restrict abortion funds overseas

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush, vowing to protect "every person at every stage and season of life," said today he will take swift action to restrict U.S. funds to international family-planning groups involved in abortion.

Bush was expected to issue the order, among the first policy moves of the new Republican administration, as early as this afternoon, the same day that abortion opponents staged their annual march on Washington.

"Yes, I am. Soon," Bush said when asked by a reporter if he was going to reverse the Clinton administration's position on unrestricted family-planning aid.

On his first workday in the White House, Bush also gave a written statement to marchers on the 28th anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion.

"The promises of our Declaration of Independence are not just for the strong, the independent or the healthy. They are for everyone, including unborn children," his statement said. "We share a great goal, to work toward a day when every child is welcomed in life and protected in law ... to build a culture of life, affirming that every person at every stage and season of life, is created equal in God's image."

Abortion-rights supporter Kate Michelman saw it as Bush's latest act of war on women's reproductive rights, following on his nomination of staunch abortion opponents to key Cabinet posts - former Sen. John Ashcroft for attorney general and former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson as secretary of health and human services.

Bush "is using his presidential powers quite aggressively already to undermine a woman's right to choose and clear a pathway to the overturning of Roe v. Wade," Michelman said. "I think it's a harbinger of things to come - Supreme Court appointments, judicial appointments ... . There's quite a bit of harm that can be done to women's reproductive rights."

Ashland Daily Tidings
1661 Siskiyou Blvd.
Ashland, OR 97520
Telephone 541-482-3456

© Copyright 2000
Lee Northwest Publishing