House Subcommittee Votes to Cut International Family Planning Funding

In July, the House State-Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee approved $461 million for international family planning and reproductive health programs. This represents a 25% cut in U.S. international family planning assistance for FY2012. The decrease was approved as part of a larger appropriation bill for the State Department and U.S. foreign assistance programs.

This bill, as passed, would also ban the U.S. from giving any funding to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and would reinstate the global “gag rule”  that President Obama repealed by executive order during his first month in office. The gag rule prevents foreign organizations receiving U.S. family planning assistance from using their own non-U.S. funds to perform abortions, refer patients for an abortion or even provide counseling on abortion as an available option in countries where abortion is legal, and it prevents them from advocating for its legalization in countries where it is not.

http://www.populationinstitute.org/newsroom/press/view/41/

http://blog.populationinstitute.org/2011/07/28/the-war-on-women-continues/