* Excellent posts on the appalling UNFPA situation over at the Appalachia Alumni Association blog here and here, including info on how to donate to UNFPA.
From an AAA post:
UNFPA estimates that the loss of US funding will “result in 2 million unwanted pregnancies per year, nearly 800,000 abortions, 4,700 maternal deaths and 77,000 infant and child deaths.” In a list of country-specific impacts, here’s one of the saddest: “In Bangladesh, where one woman dies every hour from complications during pregnancy and childbirth, UNFPA will be forced to curtail training for doctors on how to deal with obstetric emergencies.”
* There is one bit of good reproductive rights news: Senator Barbara Boxer successfully proposed an amendment to State Department funding which overturned the global gag rule last week. Senator Boxer succeeded in getting six pro-life Senators to vote for her amendment, providing the margin of victory, by emphasizing that the global gag rule is a free speech issue.
Unfortunately, the global gag rule remains operative unless the House of Representatives also votes to overturn it, which I don’t think is likely.
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