Snowe, Collins understand the rights of reproduction

I’m a mother and grandmother, I’m a professional and like our two Maine senators, I am a Republican. Like them, I am also a woman of a certain age. I remember when we were denied jobs because we’d probably just get married and go wherever our husbands’ careers dictated. I remember when we were fired because of pregnancy. I remember when our credit was cancelled if we divorced our husbands, and when we had few legal protections if we were abused. And I remember the bad old days prior to the important U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1973 when privacy rights were extended to women making childbearing decisions. That is to say, I remember when effective birth control was illegal.

In the past year, the atrocities of the Taliban made the importance of women’s empowerment and participation crystal clear. Or so I thought. Since then, while blaming the “axis of evil” countries for unspeakable acts of terrorism, our president has joined in their oppression of women with a stunning strike of political payback moved regarding international family planning.

When, on his first day in office, President Bush reimposed the “global gag rule” (importing divisive U.S. abortion politics without our protections for free speech), he took great pains to couple his anti-abortion statements with support for international family planning. A year and a half later, it’s payback time, and his record on behalf of the world’s women has begun to speak for itself. He has willingly traded the health and rights of the planet’s most disenfranchised people for domestic political points.

At the most recent International AIDS Conference, epidemiologists from the World Health Organization projected that fully two-thirds of the 45 million new HIV infections expected to occur in the next eight years could be averted if proven disease prevention strategies were rapidly instituted. But at this juncture, when we have the power to alter the course of this epidemic, our president is taking great pains to distance us from worldwide consensus on reproductive an sexual health, including AIDS prevention.

A natural political stance for a Republican? Not necessarily. Our entire Maine congressional delegation, including Republican Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, has been steadfast in support of reproductive rights, fair and greater access to contraception, international and domestic family planning funding and comprehensive sex education. This is not a partisan issue because privacy, education, religious freedom and the safety of women are not partisan matters.

Here is what I know and what I believe. Snowe and Collins know families and communities prosper when women are given the opportunity to make informed decisions about the number and spacing of their children. They know instinctively that the term “reproductive rights” is not so much about reproduction as it is about rights – about less government regulation in personal medical decisions, religious freedom and the rights of women to participate fully in our society.

The same retrograde forces that have agitated to destroy funding of the United National Population Fund and cut – even eliminate – all U.S. assistance to family planning and reproductive health overseas are equally active in their opposition to reproductive health programs and U.S. policies. The Bush administration is heeding to these groups on both fronts, so far without any serious political repercussions.

It’s time for repercussions. Our European allies have called the United States’ cut in UNPF funding “the decency gap.” Bush would do well to follow the lead of Maine’s senators when it comes to decency, health and humanity. Snowe and Collins, I implore you to use your wisdom and influence. Don’t hold back. We need you to be heroines on behalf of the world’s women and adolescents by insisting that our president honor the right and value their lives, both here and abroad.

Sibyl Masquelier runs a national headhunting agency for media specialists from her Cape Elizabeth home.