The American Public Health Association condemns U.S. reproductive-health policies

The United States' largest association of public-health professionals recently issued a resolution expressing opposition to the Bush administration's global gag rule and other policies that undermine domestic and global progress in sexual and reproductive health and endanger the health and well-being of women, men and youth.

The governing council of the American Public Health Association (APHA) approved the statement in November, on behalf of more than 30,000 members. It calls attention to the U.S. government's role as a principal funder of sexual and reproductive health programs in the United States and abroad - a role that, the statement asserts, gives it a "special responsibility to promote comprehensive information and services to protect the health and rights of those it serves."

Instead, the statement notes, several government policies and programs expressly limit access to information and services. Globally, for instance, the Bush administration's Mexico City policy, or global gag rule, prevents foreign nongovernmental organization grantees of U.S. funding from using U.S. or other funds for legal abortion-related activities, thus "preventing individuals and couples from accessing the full range of legal, medically-acceptable health-care options," including safe abortion.

Similarly, the resolution decries the United States' withdrawal of support for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), an action that APHA claims "has curtailed the availability of reproductive health services for many of the world's poorest individuals."

Domestically, the statement notes, the government's promotion of abstinence-only sex education "leaves young people inadequately prepared to protect themselves from unwanted pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections, and unsafe abortion." Also problematic are ideologically driven nominations and appointments to high-ranking policymaking positions, at the expense of "scientifically-based public-health knowledge and expertise."

The APHA resolution is the latest in a growing body of statements opposed to the Bush administration's tendency to substitute ideology for science as the basis of policy. They include an August 2003 report from California Democratic Congressman Henry A. Waxman titled Politics and Science in the Bush Administration and a petition originated by the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals called Preserving Core Values in Science. More than 85 organizations representing 2.1 million individuals have endorsed the petition, which calls on the federal government to reaffirm its commitment to basing public-health and scientific policymaking on core scientific values.

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