Thursday, February 17, 2011

The Fight to Save Family Planning - from the Huffington Post

Budget cutting fever is sweeping Capitol Hill this week as the House of Representatives debates a temporary spending bill that would slash discretionary spending in 2011. When it comes to family planning, the "fever" has reached viral hemorrhagic proportions. It's like an outbreak of the Ebola virus.


Now, in their budget cutting zeal, some House Republicans, led by Rep. Bob Latta (R-OH, 5th), are reportedly gearing up to wipe out the $648 million a year currently being spent for international family planning assistance. Never mind that doing so would deny family planning services to 26.5 million women in the developing world, and would result in 7.8 million more unintended pregnancies, 3.7 million more abortions, 87,000 additional newborn deaths, and 12,000 additional maternal deaths. Because those numbers don't appear as a line item in the federal budget, it appears that they don't matter to budget-cutting zealots.


To read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-walker/the-fight-to-save-family-_b_824086.html

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