Ipas > Ipas responds to re-election of President Bush

Ipas responds to re-election of President Bush

November 3, 2004

Elizabeth Maguire, president of Ipas, today said the following about the re-election of President George Bush:

“For the last four years, women worldwide have suffered needlessly because the Bush administration has obstinately refused to acknowledge the harsh reality of unsafe abortion. Every minute, forty women have an unsafe abortion. Each year, 70,000 women—the majority poor—die needlessly from unsafe abortion and millions more are injured. The president has turned his head away from this tragedy—one that is wholly preventable—in favor of promoting a faith-based ideology and policies, such as the Global Gag Rule, that only do more harm than good. If the president’s next term is anything like his first, we can only expect things to get worse for the world’s women.

“We urge President Bush to chart a new course for women during his second term. This will not come without pressure from citizens and elected officials who understand that women are central to global health and stability. We must urge President Bush to lift the Global Gag Rule, which has harmed countless poor women worldwide by withholding vital reproductive-health services, and to pay the $34 million the United States has pledged to UNFPA for family-planning programs to prevent maternal and child deaths worldwide.

“We must demand that the president uphold a woman’s right to choose. Ipas urges everyone to tell their elected officials to only support a nominee for the Supreme Court who supports reproductive rights and health. Women around the world must have the opportunity to determine their future, protect their family and manage their fertility. It is time for the president to face the truth about unsafe abortion.”

For more information, contact:
Kirsten Sherk
Senior Associate, Media Relations
e-mail: sherkk@ipas.org
phone: 919.960.5612
fax: 919.929.0258