BTL:A Woman's Right to Choose Under Severe Attack as...

BTL:A Woman's Right to Choose Under Severe Attack as...

by Between The Lines' Denise Manzari. Saturday, Nov. 30, 2002 at 2:43 PM
betweenthelines@snet.net BETWEEN THE LINES c/o WPKN Radio 89.5 FM Bridgeport, Connecticut

...GOP Consolidates Control of U.S. Government. Interview with Terry O'Neill, a membership vice president of NOW conducted by Between The Lines' Denise Manzari.

A Woman's Right to Choose Under Severe Attack as GOP Consolidates Control of U.S. Government

Interview with Terry O'Neill, a membership vice president of NOW conducted by Between The Lines'Denise Manzari

Since George W. Bush has been in office, his attacks against women's reproductive freedoms have been relentless. His first official act was to cut the $34 million in funding for for the United Nations' Population Fund, which would have assisted poor women in preventing unintended pregnancies and controlled the spread of sexually-transmitted diseases and HIV-AIDS.

Bush proclaimed Jan. 20, 2002, "National Sanctity of Human Life Day," likening the terrorism of Sept. 11 to abortion.

He now wants to appoint right-wing religious activist Dr. David Hager, who is working to overturn the FDA's approval of mifepristone, more commonly known as RU-486, or the "abortion pill," to the FDA's influential Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee.

In October of this year, the Bush administration issued regulations making fetuses, but not their pregnant mothers, eligible for health care coverage under the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or CHIP.

The fate of Roe vs. Wade, the historic 1973 ruling which legalized abortion nationwide, now rests in the hands of a conservative Supreme Court. With the GOP takeover of the U.S. Senate, Republicans now have the power to confirm Bush administration nominees, bolstering the ranks of anti-choice justices.

Terry O'Neill is the membership vice president of NOW, the National Organization for Women, based in Washington, D.C. She spoke with Between The Lines' Denise Manzari about how Republican control of all three branches of government could quietly, but relentlessly, reverse nearly 30 years of progress in women's rights -- especially reproductive freedoms.

For more information, contact NOW at (202) 628-8669 or visit their Web site at www.now.org

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