Friday, May 04, 2007

Bush's veto: a weapon against women

Bush is getting that veto pen warmed up, the next possible target being any legislation that weakens abortion laws:

"President Bush told Congressional leaders Thursday that he would veto any legislation that weakened federal policies or laws on abortion.

"In a two-page letter sent to the House speaker,Nancy Pelosi, and the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, Mr. Bush said his veto threat would apply to any measures that “allow taxpayer dollars to be used for the destruction of human life.” ...

"For example, a provision is under consideration for a foreign appropriations bill that would end a ban on discussing abortion in family planning clinics in developing nations."


"The destruction of human life". And who'd know more about that than a guy who's presided over a record 152 executions on his watch as governor of Texas and hundreds of thousands of deaths in Iraq as president. Now his veto will allow third-world women to continue suffering and dying because of the unrealistic restrictions on foreign assistance for family planning:

"Among the things one never expects to see in the Des Moines Register is a six-part exposé on how Ethiopia is suffering at the hands of U.S. family-planning policies. But, in October, Rekha Basu, a columnist for the Register, traveled to Ethiopia and sent back a vivid portrait of a poor country that has seen its birthrate skyrocket, due in part to a paucity of birth control and family-planning clinics. One in seven women die from pregnancy-related causes. Many more opt for illegal "backyard" abortions--and often kill themselves trying.

"One might assume that the United States, which sends more than $200 million in aid to Ethiopia each year, is in a position to help. Not so. Thanks to restrictions put in place by both the Bush administration and anti-abortion Republicans in Congress, most of that aid has been funneled away from family-planning organizations, forcing health clinics to shut down and birth-control supplies to dwindle. "We haven't counted the number of women who got pregnant as a result," one local advocate said."

For someone who insists he stands for a "culture of life", Georgie seems to just get better and better at killing people.