SS+Gag+Rule+neg+-+Solvency+1nc

1. Europe fills funding gaps (http://www.plannedparenthood.org/news-articles-press/politics-policy-issues/international-issues/global-gag-rule-15079.htm) __Other donor countries and organizations have stepped in to fill the “decency gap” created by the__ __U.S.__ __when it withdrew support for sexual and reproductive health programs in the developing world__. __The European Development Fund began channeling support to IPPF and UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, in direct response to the__ __U.S.__ __decisions to defund global reproductive health efforts__ (Cohen, 2004). __The Safe Abortion Action Fund was launched by the United Kingdom__ government in February 2006__. It aims to offset global gag rule-related funding losses and promote safe abortion around the world__ (Boseley, 2006; DFID, 2006). __The__ __UK__ __has been joined by__ the governments __of__ __Denmark____,__ __Norway____,__ __Sweden____, and__ __Switzerland__ and other donors in contributing to the fund, which will be distributed to nongovernmental organizations who apply to work in the areas of advocacy, operations research, and service delivery (IPPF, 2007). The UK’s counterpart to USAID, the Department for International Development (DFID), elected the International Planned Parenthood Federation to administer the fund (DFID, 2006).
 * Planned Parenthood**, **7-2**-7

2. The State-Foreign Operations Appropriations bill allows family planning funding (Planned Parenthood Applauds House Vote to Support International Family Planning, http://www.commondreams.org/news2007/0622-11.htm) __Planned Parenthood Federation of__ __America__ (PPFA) today __applauds the vote by the House of Representatives to dramatically improve access to family planning supplies as part of the__ __FY2008 State-Foreign Operations Appropriations bill__ (HR 2764). __PPFA also appreciates House members for rejecting attempts__ by family planning opponents, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI), and Rep. Joe Pitts (R-PA), __to strip from the bill two key global family planning provisions that expand access to birth control services and information.__ These provisions are the “Contraceptives and Condoms Exemption” from the Global Gag Rule, and the “Abstinence-Until-Marriage” Earmark Waiver in the, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). “We live in a world where a woman dies of a pregnancy-related complication every minute and someone gets HIV every six and a half seconds — due primarily to the limited availability of contraception and the information necessary to make responsible health care decisions," said PPFA President Cecile Richards. “__This vote is a significant step forward in the fight to improve the health and safety of women and families around the world__. Through this exemption and waiver, women, men, and young people will have access to the information and tools they need to plan their families and protect their health." Disease prevention and reproductive health are among the most pressing international health issues. More than 200 million women in developing countries want to delay or end childbearing but lack access to modern contraceptives. Additionally, nearly 40 million people worldwide are infected with HIV/AIDS, and millions more, especially women and young people, are at risk. Improved access to contraceptive methods, like condoms, could prevent 52 million unintended pregnancies, 22 million induced abortions, 1.4 million infant deaths, and 142,000 pregnancy-related deaths per year, as well as prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, thus saving millions of lives. Currently, the Global Gag Rule prohibits international family planning agencies that provide abortion services, counsel patients on the option of abortion, refer patients to other abortion providers, or advocate for abortion legalization in their own countries from receiving USAID family planning funds, technical assistance, and vitally needed contraceptive supplies__.__ __The "Contraceptives and Condoms Exemption" greatly improves access to contraceptives by allowing those agencies that have not signed on to the Global Gag Rule to receive__ __U. S.__ __government-donated contraceptives and condoms__. PEPFAR is a five-year, $15 billion, multifaceted initiative designed to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS around the world. Currently, one-third of all PEPFAR prevention dollars must be spent on abstinence-until-marriage programs that deny participants important information about the role of male latex condoms in preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS. __With today’s passage of the FY2008 State-Foreign Operations Appropriation bill, the president will have the authority to waive the PEPFAR earmark and thus greatly expand the funding available for the development of culturally appropriate, medically accurate HIV/AIDS prevention programs including those that provide the information and tools necessary to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS. “Today's vote puts__ __America__ __back on the right track when it comes to family planning__, ” added Richards. “__We thank our friends in the House of Representatives who voted to greatly improve access to contraception, including condoms, and vital HIV/AIDS prevention information__. ”
 * Planned Parenthood**, **6-22**-7

3. Helms amendment blocks funding Janet **Benshoof**, president of the Center for Reproductive Law and policy, **3-26**-7 (Janet Benshoof’s Remarks Upon Receiving the Edith I. Spivack Award, http://www.nycla.org/siteFiles/Publications/Publications320_0.pdf) The global censorship of abortion speech orchestrated by the United States, has fully saturated the U. N. and reaches inside over 170 countries. There are two restrictions, but only one has been subject to criticism, the gag rule. Under the gag rule over 400 nonprofit groups world wide will loose all U. S. health and democracy grants if they discuss abortion, even with their own funds. Women's groups in Iran are freer to discuss abortion (and their law has been liberalized) than women in Iraq where USAID money to women's groups preclude them from legal or public health discussions regarding abortion law. __However pernicious this gag rule is__, however, __its repeal would not stop the problem.__ __We must kill the virus which foments it, the Helms amendment. The__ 1973 __Helms Amendment__ to the FAA __prohibits US funding of any abortion services or speech__ except in cases of life or rape or incest. Although such funding is allowed in those cases the U. S. has never permitted it. For example, right now we could help the women in Sudan who suffer rape and forced pregnancy as war crimes. Abortion in the case of rape is legal in the Sudan, it is legal under Helms, but who is speaking up for this medical service to survivors? __The Helms censorship has meant that all U. N. agencies now follow its strictures. UNFPA alone imposes censorship on abortion speech in all its projects__, ones funded by some 171 donor countries totaling over $350 million annually.

4. Multiple loopholes Barbara B **Crane**, Executive Vice President, Ipas **and** Jennifer **Dusenberry**, Research Assistant, Population Action International, **4** (Power and Politics in International Funding for Reproductive Health: the US Global Gag Rule, www.sciencedirect.com) Significantly, __the policy explicitly allows NGOs to continue to treat the complications of unsafe abortions__ (post-abortion care). __It also allows referral of a pregnant woman elsewhere if she specifically asks where a safe, legal abortion can be obtained__. __Abortion-related research is also permitted__.[3.] It should be further noted that as emergency __contraception is not a form of abortion, it is legally allowed under the current Gag Rule__. [4.] Moreover__, the Gag Rule does not apply to other non-family planning US assistance__ such as child survival. [5.] Finally, __the Gag Rule exempts governments receiving US assistance as well as US-based NGOs__, whose activities are not limited if they are using non-USAID funds. However, if US NGOs are implementing overseas programmes with US funding, they are legally responsible for enforcing the Gag Rule's restrictions on their NGO partners in those countries.

5. Doesn’t reduce funding (http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/ok05_fallin/mexicocity.shtml) U.S. Rep. Mary Fallin, R – Oklahoma, and several other Pro-Life Congresswomen spoke out today against the pro-abortion measures placed in the latest Congressional spending bill. The State Foreign/Operations Appropriations bill would authorize U.S. taxpayer money to support international organizations that practice or advocate abortion as a method of “family planning.” Under the Mexico City Policy, originally instated by President Reagan, those organizations were previously barred from receiving U.S. assistance.__The__ __Mexico City__ __Policy does not affect funding__ for family planning programs that do not promote abortion, __nor does it affect the overall funding levels for HIV/AIDS prevention__.
 * House Press Release**, **6-20**-7

== 6. Turn—Undermines prevention methods (http://www.catholic.org/national/national_story.php?id=24459) In the letter, Cardinal Rigali notes that the appropriations bill also contains “a harmful provision nullifying the current allocation of one-third of AIDS prevention funds for abstinence programs that have proven to be very effective in Africa.” He urged the congressmen to “follow the wise counsel … from our bishops’ conferernce and Catholic Relief Services” and agree to retain current funding. But the primary focus of the letter was international family planning program funding, the goal of which, he said, “should be to reduce abortions.” “Hence, it would be counter-productive to place such programs in the hands of those who perform and promote abortion,” Cardinal Rigali said, adding that this is especially true concerning those organizations “so deeply committed to abortion that they would rather refuse U.S. funds than give up promoting it.” The cardinal pointed to studies that indicate that the inclusion of abortion as a family-planning program “undermines any effectiveness it might have had.” “When abortion is made available alongside preventative methods,” he said, “abortion replaces prevention.”
 * Catholic Online**, **6-20**-7

7. Foreign NGO’s force abortion education ignoring African culture—turns case (Rule Bars Certain Funding for Abortions, http://www.zenit.org/article-19929?l=english) __The__ __Mexico City__ __policy__ was first announced in that city at the 1984 U. N. International Conference on Population. Member nations urged governments to take appropriate steps to prevent abortions, saying that it should never be considered a method of family planning. And the United States said it would no longer fund nongovernmental organizations violating this international consensus. Cardinal Rigali noted in his letter to the House on Monday that the policy __was supported__ not only by the United States, the Holy See, and many developed nations such as France, Italy and Germany, but also by "__the great majority of developing nations, many of whom resent Western efforts to promote abortion to them as a badge of 'progress__.'" Not an imposition "__This policy was never an imposition by the__ __United States__ __on reluctant developing nations__, __for it was enthusiastically supported by those nations,__" Cardinal Rigali affirmed. The 72-year-old prelate continued: "__Respect for innocent human life, a due regard for the culture and the rights of vulnerable developing nations__, and even the practical concerns of those committed to effective family planning programs all argue for the same conclusion. "Therefore I urge you to support the Stupak/Smith amendment, so the Mexico City Policy can remain in effect." John Haas, president of the National Catholic Bioethics Center, also defended the policy in a letter to the House of Representatives. Haas wrote: "As you know, __the__ __Mexico City__ __Policy__ is an administration policy that __attempts to protect impoverished people from policies of overseas nongovernmental organizations which offer or promote abortion as a method of family planning__. "__There is no stronger message to impoverished people concerning their dignity and worth than to promote polices that respect the life and wellbeing of their next generation. Aid that destroys the lives of the next generation destroys hope__."
 * Zenit.org**, **6-20**-7

== 8. U.S. lacks medical treatment and resorts to abstinence Africa Action, 6 (http://www.africaaction.org/newsroom/index.php?op=read&documentid=1879&type=15&issues=1) International support is critical to turning the tide of this pandemic in Africa and globally, but current __U.S.__ __policies on HIV/AIDS hinder the African response to this crisis in several ways.__ In the realm of HIV prevention, __the__ __U.S.__ __continues to allow an ideological bias toward abstinence-only programs to bar the way of best practices and evidence-based approaches__. When it comes to treatment__, the__ __U.S.__ __preference for expensive, brand name medications rather than generic antiretroviral drugs hinders the pursuit of universal access to treatment in__ __Africa__ __and beyond.__ __U.S.__ __funding levels for HIV/AIDS programs have also fallen far short of the response a crisis of this magnitude demands__. At the same time, __the__ __U.S.__ __failure to provide strong and consistent support for the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis & Malaria has left this important multilateral initiative without the resources it needs to scale up its HIV/AIDS programs__. More than 80 representatives of African civil society met in Abuja, Nigeria in April 2006 to craft a position paper laying out their main concerns and recommendations for action against HIV/AIDS. In May 2006, African Union member states also convened for the five-year review of the “Abuja Declaration on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Other Related Infectious Diseases.” Through such fora, civil society organizations and governments in Africa have made their priorities clear. An effective response to HIV/AIDS requires a more urgent and comprehensive approach from the U.S. and the international community. It requires greater funding, a scale-up of effective prevention, treatment, care and support programs, support for the rights and needs of women and girls, and new investments in Africa’s human resources and health care infrastructure. But despite these clear priorities, __the__ __U.S.__ __continues to pursue policies that betray__ __Africa____’s most urgent needs in the fight against HIV/AIDS__.