WASHINGTON - President Bush's anti-abortion policy has hit clinics in poor countries hard, forcing some to close and leave entire communities without healthcare, according to a report issued on Wednesday.

This is the real face of Bush's compassionate conservatism -- a war on the world's most vulnerable women and children, who bear the brunt of Bush's obsession with appeasing his domestic political base.

Gloria Feldt Planned Parenthood

Under the policy, known as the Mexico City rule by supporters and the Global Gag rule by opponents, foreign family planning agencies cannot receive U.S. funds if they provide abortion services or lobby to make or keep abortion legal in their own country.

A survey of Ethiopia, Kenya, Romania and Zambia by Population Action International and the Planned Parenthood Federation of America showed the rule had forced clinics to close and left many men and women without access to contraceptives that could prevent both unwanted pregnancies and AIDS.

"Health services have been scaled back and closings of reproductive health clinics have left some communities with no healthcare provider," the group wrote in a statement.

The policy has also hurt AIDS prevention efforts, said the groups, which published the findings on the Internet at www.globalgagrule.org.

As one of his first acts in office in 2001, Bush reinstated the rule that former President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, had lifted. The rule was originally imposed in 1984 by President Ronald Reagan at a Mexico City conference.

Last month Bush ordered the State Department to strengthen the rule by withholding U.S. family planning help from overseas groups that promote or perform abortions with their own money.

PROTECT WOMENS' HEALTH

Supporters say the United States should not be spending taxpayer money to promote abortion. Opponents argue that abortion is legal in the United States and elsewhere and that abortion counseling is part of a wide range of advice that women need to protect their health.

"Our research has found that the Global Gag Rule is taking a toll on the lives and health of women, children and families around the world," the report reads. Five family planning clinics run by nongovernmental organizations have closed in Kenya because they broke the rule and lost funding from the U.S. Agency for International development, the report said.

"The NGOs have also had to cut their staffing by as much as 30 percent, reduce services in remaining clinics and raise fees in order to remain viable."

"In Lesotho, one in four women is infected with HIV/AIDS -- one of the highest rates in southern Africa. Over a three-year period from 1998 to 2000, the Lesotho Planned Parenthood Association received 426,000 condoms ... all donated by USAID," the report added.

"Because of their refusal to agree to the gag rule restrictions, they no longer receive USAID contraceptives."

In Kenya's Mathare Valley a clinic closed, leaving 300,000 people with no healthcare services. "And there is no other family planning or reproductive health clinic nearby," the report said.

In Romania, women may be more likely to get abortions, not fewer, because the rule has meant more women cannot get any information on contraceptives that can prevent unwanted pregnancies, the report said.

"This is the real face of Bush's compassionate conservatism -- a war on the world's most vulnerable women and children, who bear the brunt of Bush's obsession with appeasing his domestic political base," Planned Parenthood's Gloria Feldt said in a statement.

© 2003 Reuters Limited

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