Media

For Immediate Release:
October 14, 2004

Contact: Adrienne Verrilli
at: 212-819-9770 x325

New Resource Guide Release: Understanding Religious and Political Opposition to Reproductive Health and Rights

New York, NY - The Sexuality Information and Education Council of the U.S. (SIECUS) is pleased to announce the release of a new resource guide, Understanding Religious and Political Opposition to Reproductive Health and Rights. This publication addresses a number of issue areas that U.S.-based groups opposed to reproductive rights have rallied around in recent years. The guide is a collaborative effort by International Planned Parenthood Federation European Network (IPPF EN), Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), and SIECUS. The publication was developed as a key resource for a meeting held earlier this month in Brussels by leading European and U.S. groups that focused on the importance of opposition work.

"Opponents of sexual and reproductive health and rights are firmly entrenched in the U.S. and have begun to take hold in regions throughout the world such as Africa, Asia, Latin America, as well as eastern and western Europe. We hope that this guide will provide a model for progressive advocates around the world to learn the language, tactics, and motivation of the global opposition," said William Smith, director of public policy at SIECUS.

Today the United Nation's General Assembly is holding a special session to mark the 10th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) and its 20-year Programme of Action (PoA). This historic global consensus recognized the critical role that adolescents' and women's sexual and reproductive health and rights play in poverty reduction and sustainable development. This agreement has provided a plan that has lead to, among other progress, an unprecedented number of countries taking steps to provide adolescents with access to reproductive health care.

"President Bush and opponents of sexual and reproductive health and rights are sparing no expense to undermine these effective strategies of the ICPD and the Programme of Action. People who support adolescent and women's health and rights need tools to halt these efforts to implement a conservative, ideologically-driven agenda," Smith said.

The resource guide covers 13 topics and addresses them in three categories including: What It Is, Examples of Tactics, and Useful Facts. Topics covered include:

Attacking Sexuality Education: Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Programs
Attacking Contraceptives: Disparaging Condom Use; Restricting EC
Attacking Abortion: Abortion Bans; "Informed Consent;" Parental Involvement; Clinic Regulation; Crisis Pregnancy Centers
Attacking Abortion and Contraception: Refusal Clauses; Redefining Legal Status of a Fetus
Replacing Science with Ideology: Restricting Cloning and Stem Cell Research
Attacking Family Planning: Public Funding; Gag Rules
Attacking on Reproductive Health: Restricting HIV Prevention

"The sheer volume and impact of political opposition to sexual and reproductive health and rights in the U.S., particularly during the last 30 years, would be hard to comprehend if it was not true. Now these same groups, backed by the Bush White House, are using all available means to export their conservative ideology and tactics to the international arena," said Smith. "We hope this resource guide will provide advocates everywhere -- from California to Chile and from Pittsburgh to Portugal -- with the necessary information to counter the global opposition and their attempts to drag us back into the Dark Ages," Smith continued.

The resource guide is available free of charge at http://www.siecus.org/inter/Pol_Rel_Opp_Guide.pdf.

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