Bookends

I sent this letter to the editor of The New York Times. Doubtful that it will see publication, I offer my thoughts in this humble blog. I suggest everyone call their Representative and Senators. This is no laughing matter.

To the editor:

In their meticulous description (Blocking Care for Women", NYTimes, September 19, 2008) http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/19/opinion/19clinton.html 

Hillary Clinton and Cecile Richards perfectly describe what may be the matching bookend for the G.W. Bush Presidency. On his first day in office, January, 2001, President Bush reinstated the Global Gad Rule, a policy whose restriction mandates that no U.S. family planning assistance can be provided to foreign NGOs that use funding from any other source to perform abortions, provide counseling or lobby to make abortion legal or more available. The "gag" stifles free speech and health care progress for women in developing countries.

Now, the Bush Health and Human Service people want to extend a similar "gag" order cloaked as a way to "protect a provider's conscience" to block women's health needs right here in the United States of America. Good Grief. If this is allowed, "we the people" are surely headed toward an "imperfect union".