We all have a sanctuary, be it a favorite book or song, or a special, private spot by the river. My sanctuary is somewhat unique, given that so few people are fortunate enough to have it. It is 5’2″ with warm hazel eyes, a gentle smile, and the most beautiful soul I have encountered in my eighteen years of life. I call her Nona.
My grandmother is one of the perpetually young at heart and it shows in everything she does. At family gatherings, she flits from table to table, laughing, talking (excessively, a family trait that seems to have skipped my generation) and bestowing kisses upon old and young alike. I can honestly say that I have never known her to back down from doing anything that it wouldn’t kill her to try. Sweeping down the rapids on the Jordan River, she taught me how to handle our tipsy canoe, and how many children can claim to have a grandmother willing to go paint balling? Friends and family may laugh at her seeming inability to sit still, they may make the occasional quip about decaffeinated coffee or the Energizer bunny, but they respect her, just as we all respect and admire anyone who can take such obvious pleasure in merely being alive. Many individuals waste their early years pining to be “grown up,” squander away their latter years in a fruitless quest to remain young, and as a result, never experience a single moment of contentment. Watching Nona has taught me the value of time. She has been instrumental in helping me to understand that these are the years that will shape me into an adult, and that I must give myself the time I need to establish my own identity. While I look forward to my future, I feel no desire to sprint forward to meet it; a walking pace is enough. Perhaps it’s a skill inherent in all actors, perhaps it’s one of the benefits of her many years of life, but Nona possesses an intuition the likes of which I have never seen elsewhere. She can sense when something is amiss, and more often than not she can determine what that something is with a few shrewd questions. She will never pry on the rare occasions when I wish to remain silent, and confidences given to her are always, always safe.
Bush Imposes Gag Rule
Bush Imposes Gag Rule
On January 25, 2001, on his first business day in office (and the 28th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision establishing a woman’s right to an abortion), President George W. Bush stupidly re-imposed the Global Gag Rule on the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) population program. This policy restricts foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that receive USAID family planning funds from using their own, non-U.S. funds to provide legal abortion services, lobby their own governments for abortion law reform, or even provide accurate medical counseling or referrals regarding abortion. See what damage he is doing! The 1973 Helms Amendment is a legislative provision that already restricts U.S. funds from being used for these activities, but Bush had to get involved for political purposes.
About 2 million women die every year from unsafe abortions, a statistic that could be virtually eliminated by the provision of appropriate health information and services and law reform efforts. Despite this, President Bush’s Executive Memorandum directs USAID “to reinstate in full all of the requirements of the Mexico City Policy in effect on January 19, 1993.” According to this policy, foreign organizations–often the only health care providers in remote, rural areas–are prohibited from using their own, non-U.S. funds for:
* providing legal abortions even, can you believe, where a woman’s physical or mental health is endangered (the only exceptions are in cases of rape, incest, or where the woman’s life is endangered);
* providing advice and information regarding the availability and benefits of abortion and from providing referrals to another health clinic;
* lobbying their own governments to legalize abortion, to maintain current law and oppose restrictions, or to decriminalize abortion; and
* conducting public education campaigns regarding abortion.
In addition, even the provision of services that are “permitted”1 on paper, such as life-saving abortions and post-abortion care, are often curtailed because NGOs fear jeopardizing their funding through any association with abortion – what cowardice!! Providers may even be reluctant to dispense emergency contraception–which acts to prevent pregnancy and is not an abortifacient (despite the lies you may hear from the antichoice groups and the Catholic Church –because of the Global Gag Rule.