 Tell Congress Now: Help Poor Countries to Plan Families Between September 6th and October 9th will decide how much the United States will contribute next year to help couples in the world's poorest countries who want to limit family size. Neither house as acted yet. The issues are two fold. 1. Congress has slashed the US contribution for family planning for the last 3 years from $585 million in 1995 to $385 million for 1998. The House subcommittee would keep it the same for 1999, while the Senate committee would raise it $50 million. 2. There will be attempts to forbid funding any family planning organization that either provides abortions (using its own money since using US aid for abortions has long been illegal) or advocates liberalizing abortion laws. This "anti-abortion" rule would de-fund the most effective providers of non-abortion birth control and thus increase the number of abortions and of deaths due to unsafe illegel abortions. This second issue is really just a sneak attack on family planning aid, as demonstrated by the fact that last year 13 of 15 House members who argued for this provision also voted against all family planning aid. US aid for family plannings comes to less than $2 per American. Yet it has been a major factor in reducing the world's average number of children per family from more than 5 children per family in the 1960s to just over 3 children per family today. But population will rise until that number comes down to 2 children per family. How quickly that decline happens will determine whether world population (6 billion + now) peaks around 9 billion or goes far higher. Meanwhile, hundreds of millions of women who want contraceptives cannot get them. Increasing populations overwhelm efforts of developing nations to meet even basic needs, as shown by (for example) the world's decreasing per capita grain production and total ocean fish catch. Increasing population also makes it far harder, perhaps impossible, to reduce emissions of global warming gases. Action Needed! Contact our senators and your own congressperson. Congressman Bartlett should be asked to drop his opposition to family planning aid. Please ask others to actively support the highest possible amount and oppose restrictions. The family planning aid bill has no number yet; refer to it as the "foreign operations appropriations bills." Call Cliff Terry at 410-944-9477 if you have questions. Two Maryland Legislators Honored for Family Planning Leadership
State Senator Arthur Dorman (Democrat/Senate District 22 - Prince Georges County) and Delegate Sharon Grosfeld (Democrat/Assembly District 18 - Montgomery County) will receive the Maryland Sierra Club's "Golden Stork" award early in September. This award, an engraved plaque showing a baby-carrying stork, honors Senator Dorman and Delegate Grosfeld for their longtime leadership in support of family planning and reproductive choice. Dorman and Grosfeld were the primary sponsors of legislation enacted during the last General Assembly session that required health insurance in Maryland to cover prescription contraceptives just like any other prescription. Maryland is the first state to give women parity in prescription coverage. The "Golden Stork" award has been given, previously, to Congresswoman Connie Morella.
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