the Madonna adoption thing and the global gag rule

[iverglas]

typos fixed

I confess to paying little attention - okay, no attention - to any aspect of Madonna's undoubtedly fascinating life and career. Haven't followed this latest tale at all.

I just happened to read an article in the paper yesterday about the ruling against her adoption plan, in which the judge cited concerns about relaxed requirements for foreign adoptions potentially facilitating child trafficking. I certainly consider that concern valid in general.

Anyhow, what caught my notice in the article, that I hadn't seen before in the bits of the story that had entered my field of vision, was the circumstances in which the child was orphaned.

Her mother (I have seen her age given as 14, 15 and 18, but 14 may be the most accurate) died as a result of childbirth.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/International-Stars/Madonnas-adoption-woes/articleshow/4361647.cms

James Kambewa, 24, who fled in disgrace after Mercy's mother Mwandida, who was a 15-year-old schoolgirl at the time, fell pregnant, told The Mirror: "She is my daughter and I want her to live with me."

Mwandida died eight days after giving birth. James has never been seen in the family's home village of Thwonde in southern Malawi since the outcry.

In fact Malawi authorities had always believed that Mercy was an orphan and had failed to find her father. Now, James is ready to prove he is the biological dad by taking a DNA test and is desperate to meet his daughter for the first time.

James told in an interview how he was made to believe Mercy had died along with her mother during childbirth. Security guard James, 24, said: "Discovering my daughter is alive is a miracle. Now I call on all my countrymen to help me have my child. I will take a DNA test and appear in court to prove Mercy is my child. I am willing to do whatever it takes."

We'll likely never know the circumstances in which a 14-year-old girl became pregnant by a (then) 19- or 20-year-old man. And I wouldn't speculate as to the sincerity of his desire to rear the child.

What just struck me was the fact that a young teenaged girl died as a result of bearing a child.

And once again: the evil, the sheer evil, of anyone who would deny girls like her access to contraception and abortion services, and even decent prenatal and postnatal healthcare, is the bit of the story that is missing here.


www.ncjw.org/media/PDFs/S06%20Exporting%20Ideology.pdf

A midwife explains mother-to-child HIV transmission at a family planning clinic in Malawi, where abortion is a felony. Under the global gag rule, clinics like this one lose US aid if they promote legalized abortion. Malawi has the world’s second-highest rate of maternal death.

http://reproductiverights.org/en/document/the-global-gag-rules-effects-on-ngos-in-56-countries
http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/youth/advocacy/yan/familyplanning/globalgag.htm

In 18 of the 56 countries that receive funding from the United States for international family planning, abortion is legal on grounds broader than saving the pregnant woman's life. Under the "global gag rule," nongovernmental organizations in these countries that provide either abortion or referral for abortion cannot provide this legal service to their patients without losing funding. Countries in which legal reproductive health care services may be restricted because of the "global gag rule" include Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Georgia, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Nepal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, South Africa, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.

In 17 countries receiving U.S. family planning assistance, abortion is legal under limited circumstances, including protecting the woman's life and physical health and, in some instances, protecting her mental health or for socioeconomic reasons, but is generally not available. Under the "global gag rule," many nongovernmental organizations that might offer safe abortion under the permitted circumstances will not do so because of their desperate need for family planning funding from the United States. Those countries include Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Jamaica, Liberia, Mali, Mozambique, Pakistan, Peru, Rwanda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

In 21 other countries, abortion is generally prohibited, except, in some cases, to protect the life of the woman. The "global gag rule" means that nongovernmental organizations that receive U.S. funding may not lobby their own government to change these laws. Even where abortion is allowed under limited circumstances, health care providers are less likely to provide the service, if it means losing vitally needed family planning funds. The countries thus affected include: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cote d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Indonesia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Paraguay, Philippines, Senegal, Tanzania, Togo, and Uganda.

http://www.planetwire.org/details/1012

Congressman Joseph Crowley Press Release on the Global Gag Rule
For Immediate Release: October 26, 2000
THE FOLLOWING IS A STATEMENT BY CONGRESSMAN CROWLEY (D-NY) ON THE STRIKING OF THE GLOBAL GAG RULE FROM INTERNATIONAL FAMILY PLANNING FUNDING

"I am proud to stand here with my colleagues on this important occasion. It has taken a collective effort by members and organizations alike, to see the elimination of the Global Gag rule from the FY2001 Foreign Operations Appropriations bill.

I would like to extend my most heartfelt thanks to our distinguished ranking member of the foreign operations subcommittee, Ms. Pelosi, and to my good friend and colleague from New York, Mrs. Lowey. Your relentless efforts to eliminate the Mexico City language will save the lives of hundreds of thousands of women and children this year.

This is not an issue of pro-life or pro-choice. In fact, this is not about abortion at all. It's about saving women's lives.

Earlier this year, I was in Malawi to see first hand how people would be affected by the inclusion of this provision. I met with a traditional attendant in a one-room hut. When I asked the birth attendant what she needed most, she said kerosene. Without kerosene, there would not be enough light to provide safe child birth procedures, thereby putting women's lives in danger. Members of this body have been engaged in policy debates over the inclusion of this language for several years. I suggest that those who seek to withhold funding from this one-room hut in Malawi, visit that site on their own. Reality is the most compelling argument.

Of course, Bush's first act in office was to reinstate the global gag rule.

Obama's second act was to end it again. (Okay, his first act was a good one too. ;) )

The evil of people who want 14-yr-old girls to have no protection against pregancy, no way to end an unwanted pregnancy, no access to prenatal and postnatal health care ... those being the effects of the US's global gag rule, and of limitations on health care assistance provided by international agencies in developing countries imposed at the behest of such as the Vatican ... is just beyond words.

[Hello_Kitty]

1. K and R.

During the election season I was arguing with a knucklehead who emailed to inform me that he was not going to vote for Obama because of the FISA issue. Granted, freedom from surveillance is an important thing and I completely understand the outrage. But I suggested to him that he google "fistula" and "global gag rule" and ask himself if he wanted the death and misery of millions of girls and women and small children on his conscience because he wanted to stand on ideological principle. IMHO, overturning that rule still stands out as one of the most important, and compassionate, things Obama has done. Now, if we can just get the Vatican and other patriarchal godbag organizations to stick a fucking sock in it we might be able to advance toward a better and more just world.