In his State of the Union, the President reiterated that the US "will [defend] liberty... for all people everywhere." Yet he refuses to overturn the Global Gag Rule, a policy he imposed last year that denies US aid to any organization abroad that uses its own funds to provide abortion services or to advocate for abortion rights. Not only does this policy deny foreign citizens the same freedom of speech we hold dear in this country, it also ties the hands of organizations that provide sexuality education and HIV prevention‹programs that the American public overwhelmingly supports. To please a small minority in Congress who oppose family planning and abortion, the Bush administration is exporting a policy that goes against what Americans want and undermines the development of girls and women around the world. It is a policy that must be reversed.

President Bush is also threatening to eliminate or reduce $34 million appropriated by Congress in family planning funding to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) for 2002- vital funds that would help save women's lives by helping them to plan their families and futures. Further, in his recent budget request to Congress, he zeroes out UNFPA funding for 2003. Americans want to be known overseas for our values‹for our "common humanity" as Laura Bush has said. Yet, even though the American public supports foreign assistance, such aid has plummeted almost 60 percent over the last 40 years. Rather than reduce, we must increase foreign aid that helps women help themselves and their families thrive.

In 1994 in Cairo, the US and 178 other governments forged an important agreement recognizing that the promotion of women's human and reproductive rights is central to creating sustainable and stable societies. Yet the U.S. has not fulfilled its pledge of providing funds toward this end, including its most recent threat to eliminate UNFPA funding. In reneging on the resources we promised to UNFPA, the Administration is weakening an organization that implements the principles of women's human and reproductive rights agreed to in Cairo. If the US is committed to improving the status of women around the world, we need to fully support programs such as those that UNFPA provides‹particularly those that invest in women and girls' education and reproductive health care services. President Bush wants the US to "lead the world toward the values that will bring lasting peace," including that all children "be educated and live free from poverty and violence." We know how to make this happen. Improving the status of girls and women is closely connected to increasing society's stability. We need to place women's rights, education and health at the center of development approaches to reduce poverty; and we need policies that reflect the values Americans stand for.

Unfortunately, President Bush's policies that undermine the health and well being of women around the world match his spotty record on US women's rights. Just recently, President Bush attacked women's rights by extending health care benefits to fetuses rather than extending prenatal care to women. His administration has claimed that classifying a fetus as an unborn child is the quickest way to get prenatal and other health care services to low-income women. But the proposed policy is unnecessary and disingenuous. Under current regulations, states can already extend Medicaid coverage to pregnant women who are not covered by private insurance but earn too much to qualify for Medicaid. States, including New York and several others, have done so since the early 1990s. Increasing a woman's access to prenatal care is the best way to provide proper health care for herself and for her fetus. If the administration really cared about women, they would provide these services directly to women. But the administration's goal isn't increased access to health care‹instead, it is about redefining "child" in a thinly-veiled attempt to erode women's reproductive freedom.

Also on the US front, in his budget request to Congress, President Bush proposed to increase funding for abstinence-only-until marriage education programs by 33%, for a total of $135 million. These unrealistic programs exclude information about contraception, safer sex and negotiation skills and the prevention of STDs, including HIV. A recent letter signed by 77 organizations‹including the American Public Health Association, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and Planned Parenthood Federation of America‹asked that President Bush rescind his decision because "continued increases to these unproven programs fly in the face of both scientific evidence and the desires of parents."

Instead of pledging resources to programs that give our youth the information and skills that help them become healthy, informed men and women, President Bush intends to increase taxpayer money on programs that are not proven to work and an overwhelming majority of Americans do not support.

President Bush should translate his rhetoric about women's rights and human dignity into reality by forwarding policies that respect and promote women's human rights, both here and abroad.

Joan Malin, Lucille C. Atkin, CEO Director Planned Parenthood of New York City. Margaret Sanger Center International at Planned Parenthood of New York City.