In response to the killing of George Floyd, millions of Americans have joined together to protest the taking of yet another innocent life by law enforcement officers whose duty it is to uphold the law and protect the public. The Population Institute condemns police brutality and the excessive use of force that continues to take a tragic and unacceptably high toll on the Black community.
Inside or outside of law enforcement, there is no place for racism in America. All of us must do our part to eradicate it. Far too little has been done to reform police practices and the broader criminal justice system in the United States. Our failure to act comes at a high price, a price that we cannot afford, particularly at a time when our nation is fighting a deadly pandemic and widespread economic dislocation.
Justice matters, and, if justice matters, Black lives matter. This a difficult and trying time for millions of Americans. It calls for unity, not division. As former president Barack Obama said earlier this week, our grief and anger must be channeled into peaceful, sustained, and effective action.
Population Institute Report Documents Unprecedented Assault on Reproductive Rights by the Trump/Pence Administration
With the U.S. Supreme Court preparing to render judgment on two cases that could significantly limit access to reproductive health services in the U.S, the Population Institute today released a report documenting the Trump/Pence administration’s expansive and tireless assault on sexual and reproductive health and rights.
In releasing the report, Robert Walker, the president of the Population Institute, said, “When it comes to restricting access to reproductive health care services at home and abroad, the Trump/Pence administration has been utterly relentless. Far too few Americans understand the full scope of the ongoing attacks on sexual and reproductive health and rights, let alone the real world impacts they will have, particularly on the poor.”
The report, which is titled Obsessed: The Trump/Pence administration’s assault on sexual and reproductive health rights details the administration’s multilayered, and increasingly successful, efforts to restrict access to birth control, as well as abortion clinics. The attacks have defied Congress and public opinion, ignored established judicial precedents, trampled on constitutional rights, rejected scientific evidence, and disregarded the advice of medical experts.
In its unrelenting quest to oppress the reproductive health rights of women, low-income earners, people of color, immigrants, and members of the LGBTQ+ community, the Trump/Pence administration and its allies have used every means at their disposal. They have:
- Stacked the federal courts with young anti-choice judges, whose lifetime appointments could reshape the future of sexual and reproductive health and rights for generations to come;
- Mounted legal challenges against federal programs, including the Affordable Care Act, that improve access to contraceptive services;
- Issued new rules that undermine the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program and its evidence-based approach to preventing teen pregnancy;
- Formulated a “domestic gag rule” that prevents Title X family planning providers from counseling pregnant patients about abortion or referring them to abortion providers, a step that forced many family planning providers, including Planned Parenthood affiliates, to withdraw from the program, which serves low-income households;
- Made college campus life less safe by issuing a new Title IX directive that significantly narrows the definition of sexual harassment;
- Re-imposed and greatly expanded the Mexico City Policy, often referred to as the “global gag rule,” by issuing an executive order that prohibits foreign organizations receiving any U.S. aid assistance from advocating for, or referring patients to abortion services;
- Suspended U.S. support for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), jeopardizing the sexual and reproductive health of women in developing countries, including those residing in refugee camps; and
- Sought to roll back the U.N.’s long-standing commitment to sexual and reproductive health and rights at several U.N. conferences and proceedings.
U.S. Flunks Reproductive Health and Rights Report Card
For the first time since the inception of the 50 State Report Card on Reproductive Health and Rights eight years ago, the U.S. as a whole has received a failing grade. The new report card covering 2019 was issued by the Population Institute today, two weeks before the U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in June Medical Services v. Russo, a Louisiana case that could result in further erosion of Roe v. Wade and abortion rights.
The Population Institute’s report card is the most comprehensive of its kind, tracking multiple indicators of reproductive health and rights, including access to family planning, sex education, and abortion services. Over the past eight years the report card has documented a steady erosion of reproductive rights at both federal and state levels.
Among the many setbacks at the federal level over the past year was the new set of rules finalized for Title X, the 50-year old federal program that supports family planning clinics serving low-income households. Commonly known as the “domestic gag rule,” the new rules prohibit Title X-funded physicians and staff from counseling patients on abortion or referring them to abortion providers, among other restrictions. This change forced Planned Parenthood and other trusted family planning and reproductive health providers to drop out of the program, slashing the Title X network’s capacity in half. At the same time, the Trump administration is awarding Title X grants to “crisis pregnancy centers” run by staunch anti-abortion advocates, some of which do not even offer contraceptive services to clients.
The Trump administration is also seeking to cut federal support for comprehensive, evidence-based sex education curricula that are proven to reduce teen pregnancy rates. In their place, the administration is promoting “sexual risk avoidance” programs that embrace an “abstinence-only” approach, which evidence shows fail to reduce teen pregnancy.
In addition to moving the Supreme Court to the right with the appointments of Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch, the U.S. Senate has confirmed dozens of Trump-nominated judges to lower federal courts, raising concerns that the federal courts will further curb abortion rights and access to reproductive health care services. A more conservative federal judiciary is also likely to issue rulings adversely affecting Title X, as well as contraception coverage and LGBTQ protections under the Affordable Care Act.
At the state level, the divide between states that promote reproductive health and rights and those that restrict them continues to deepen.
20 states received a failing grade. They include Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Wisconsin. Several of them passed abortion restrictions that defy the Roe v. Wade guidelines in hopes of persuading the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the landmark ruling.
Meanwhile, seven states received an “A” in this year’s report card, including California, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, Oregon, and Washington.
“The political war over reproductive health rights is far from over, but the legal and regulatory battle lines have been drawn, and the stakes could not be higher, said Robert Walker, president of the Population Institute. “If the opponents of reproductive health and rights have their way, abortion, contraception, other reproductive health services, and even basic health care, will be pushed even further out of reach for low income individuals.”
“It is imperative we remember those who are most impacted when we fail to provide access to safe and affordable reproductive health care for all,” said Jennie Wetter, the Population Institute’s director of public policy. “Many people of color and low-income individuals are already struggling to access reproductive health care services. This report card is a call to action for all those who care about reproductive health and rights.”
Methodology
The Population Institute report card ranks each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia according to key criteria as follows:
- Thirty percent of the grade is based on measures of effectiveness. This includes the latest available data on the teenage pregnancy rate (15%) and the rate of unintended pregnancies (15%).
- Twenty-five percent of the grade is based upon prevention. This includes mandated comprehensive sex education in the schools (15%), nurses authorized to dispense medications (5%), and minors’ access to contraceptive services (5%).
- Twenty-five percent of the grade is based upon This includes if states are expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (15%), Medicaid eligibility rules for family planning (5%), and restrictions of insurance coverage of abortion (5%).
- 20 percent of the grade is based upon clinic access. This includes abortion restrictions (10%), TRAP Laws (5%), and percent of women living in a county without an abortion provider (5%).
Based on their scores, each state receives a “core” grade (A, B, C, D or F), but some states received an additional “plus” or a “minus” for factors not reflected in the core grade.
Special thanks to the Guttmacher Institute whose research made the report card possible.
Congress Shortchanges Funding for International Family Planning
In a major reversal, Congress this week rejected an increase in U.S. funding for international family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH) programs. The Senate and the House of Representatives passed an appropriations package that freezes spending for those programs at current levels ($607.5 million) for the tenth year in a row.
Earlier this year the House Appropriations Committees approved a $198 million in increase in total funding, while the Senate Appropriations Committee approved an increase of $58 million. But in a stunning capitulation to the Trump administration and family planning opponents, House-Senate negotiators agreed to block any increase in FP/RH programs. The budget negotiators agreed to significant increases in other foreign assistance categories, including global health, but not family planning.
The final budget agreement approved this week also rejected House-passed language repealing the Trump administration’s “global gag rule (GGR). The GGR originally promulgated by President Ronald Reagan in 1984–and adopted by subsequent Republican administrations—prohibited USAID from funding non-US organizations providing family planning services overseas from advocating for abortion or referring patients to abortion services. The Trump administration has vastly expanded the GGR’s reach by applying the funding prohibition to overseas providers of global health services, not just family planning services. By refusing to fund foreign organizations that advocate for abortion, the GGR forces foreign NGOs to reject US funding and that leads, in turn, to the closure of health clinics and the curtailment of medical services in developing nations.
In reacting to the news, Robert Walker, president of the Population Institute, said, “The rejection of any increase in international funding for FP/RH and the continuation of the GGR may be a victory for the Trump administration, but it is a defeat for the health and wellbeing of women and their families. They have been thrown under the “mini-bus.”
Population Institute Observes 50th Anniversary
In observing its 50th anniversary this year, the Population Institute is celebrating the progress made in advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights.
Now, just as in 1969, reproductive freedom is the cornerstone of a better tomorrow. The right and capacity of people to choose free from coercion whether and when to have children, is a revolutionary development that has improved lives all around the world. Much of the progress we have made in the past half century would not have been possible without the advances we have made in reproductive health and rights.
Those advances have drastically reduced maternal and child mortality, elevated the status of women, allowed girls to complete their education, and enabled women to compete in the workforce. They have boosted household incomes and helped to combat poverty and hunger in some of the poorest countries in the world. They have also eased the pressure on water, land, and other resources, and in a world increasingly threatened by record high temperatures, rising seas, severe drought, and catastrophic flooding, reproductive freedom makes families and communities more resilient in times of crisis.
Reproductive freedom, however, is in peril. At home and abroad, many of the advances made in sexual and reproductive health and rights are under assault, and unless those attacks are rebuffed, the world will be much the worse for it.
In many developing countries, gender inequality is one of the biggest remaining barriers to the realization of reproductive freedom. Harmful social norms and practices, such as child marriage and sexual violence, restrict reproductive freedom and limit the vast human potential of women and girls.
Now, as in 1969, the Population Institute is committed to educating girls, empowering women, and improving access to reproductive health care for all. Reproductive freedom is not just a basic human right; it is a global imperative.
Our thanks go out to all those who have contributed to the success of the Population Institute and the fulfillment of its mission and vision.
Population Institute Joins The Thriving Together Campaign
Today, the Population Institute joins more than 150 other leading environmental and reproductive health organizations to pledge support for a first-of-its-kind campaign: Thriving Together. The campaign was organized by the Margaret Pyke Trust, located in the United Kingdom, but it has attracted global support. Supporting organizations are united in the belief that removing barriers to the use of family planning services contributes to the health and well-being of women and their families, while also benefiting the environment and biodiversity.
The Population Institute believes that in environmentally sensitive areas, particularly those threatened by resource depletion, holistic approaches—including Population, Health, and Environment (PHE) projects—that improve access to health and family planning services, while also taking steps to restore the environment and protect critical bio-habitats, can make communities healthier, more sustainable and, in the long run, more prosperous.
Two months ago, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) issued a landmark report warning that human pressures—both population and consumption—are contributing to the unravelling of nature. In releasing the report, IPBES Chair, Sir Robert Watson said, “The health of ecosystems on which we and all other species depend is deteriorating more rapidly than ever. We are eroding the very foundations of our economies, livelihoods, food security, health and quality of life worldwide.”
The UN’s latest population projections indicate that global population will likely rise from 7.7 billion today to 9.7 billion by 2050. Future population growth is uncertain, however, and is highly sensitive to small changes in fertility. If the physical, financial, educational, social and religious barriers to people using family planning services were removed, fertility rates would fall faster than currently projected.
Robert Engelman, a Senior Fellow at the Population Institute, noted that, “Gender inequality is a major contributor to high fertility rates in many parts of the world today. In addition to improving access and removing barriers to the use of family planning information and services, we urgently need to boost the education of girls, eliminate child marriage, and empower women. If we can make progress on those fronts, while also taking action on climate change and boosting support for conservation programs, there’s reason to hope we can create healthier families and a healthier planet.”
WORLD POPULATION DAY: TIME FOR A RENEWED COMMITMENT TO FAMILY PLANNING AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS
Thirty years ago tomorrow, the UN designated July 11th as World Population Day. Today, as then, the world needs to recognize that access to family planning services is a basic human right. Women, regardless of where they live, should be able to determine freely the number and spacing of their children.
The goal of universal access to reproductive health services, however, is still an unrealized aspiration. More than 200 million women in the developing world today want to avoid a pregnancy, but are not using a modern method of contraception. In addition to improving access to modern contraception, far more needs to be done towards removing the cultural and informational barriers that prevent these women from accessing modern methods of contraception. And those barriers are formidable.
Child marriage practices and the harmful social norms that disempower women and girls in developing countries need to change. Girls must be encouraged and allowed to complete their schooling, and girls and women, everywhere, need better information about contraceptive options.
Tragically, however, the Trump Administration continues to wage what amounts to a war on birth control. In its first year in office, the Trump Administration suspended U.S. support for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), a major provider of family planning services in the developing world. It also re-imposed and vastly expanded the “global gag rule” that cuts off U.S. funding to overseas providers of family planning services—or other healthcare providers—if they advocate for, or refer patients to, abortion services. The Trump administration has been pushing for steep cuts in America’s bilateral support for family planning services in developing countries, while also working actively to undermine Title X, the federal program that supports family planning clinics serving low-income women in the U.S.
The reasons for supporting family planning are, of course, as compelling as ever. Access to birth control empowers women and reduces child and maternal mortality. In developing countries, access to family planning services is an essential ally in the fights to eliminate severe poverty and hunger. And globally, family planning helps to reduce humanity’s environmental footprint, while also relieving pressure on water and other scarce resources. Last year 15,000 scientists signed a proclamation warning that the runaway consumption of limited resources, fueled by rising incomes and a still expanding world population, is crippling the Earth’s life-support systems and jeopardizing life on earth. That warning must be heeded.
In observing World Population Day, Robert Walker, president of the Population Institute, stressed that “America should be leading the fight, not sounding the retreat on sexual and reproductive health and rights. Access to family planning and reproductive health services is a basic human right and the achievement of universal access would be enormously beneficial to women, their families, their communities, and the world at large.”
Population Institute Mourns Loss of Dr. Rena Joyce Weller Karefa-Smart
The Population Institute mourns the loss of the Rev. Dr. Rena Joyce Weller Karefa-Smart, who was the first black woman to graduate from Yale Divinity School and a leader in the international ecumenical movement. She died on Jan. 9 at her daughter’s home in Rancho Mirage, California. She was 97.
Karefa-Smart was also the first black woman to earn a doctor of theology degree from Harvard Divinity School, in 1976. She was the first female professor of color to receive tenure at Howard University School of Divinity, in 1979. She was ordained as an Episcopal priest and as a minister in the AME Zion Church. She attended the first Assembly of the World Council of Churches and was an ecumenical officer for the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, D.C., and an associate of the Center for Theology and Public Policy there.
Dr. Karefa-Smart’s husband, Dr. John Albert Musselman Karefa-Smart, was a medical doctor and served as Sierra Leone’s first foreign minister. The couple, who were active with the Population Institute, lived for many years in Africa and Europe. While living in Sierra Leone, Karefa-Smart was a leading supporter of women’s empowerment and family planning. Her husband, who died in 2010, was actively involved with a number of UN agencies, including the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
The New York Times has posted her obituary.
Threats to Reproductive Rights Loom on the 46th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade
Population Institute’s Report Card for 2018 Shows 19 States Getting Failing Grades Amid Continued Attacks on Reproductive Health and Rights
WASHINGTON, D.C. – On the 46th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision the Population Institute is releasing its seventh annual 50-State Report Card on Reproductive Health and Rights. The grade for the U.S. as a whole remains at a “D-“ in this year’s report card, but reproductive rights are coming under intensified assault. In particular, the appointment of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court could have an adverse impact on future court decisions regarding access to family planning and abortion services. At the state level, 26 states received a “D” or lower, with 19 states receiving a failing grade. The report card, the most comprehensive of its kind, tracks multiple indicators of reproductive health and rights, including access to family planning and abortion services.
The Institute’s president, Robert Walker, said, “On this year’s anniversary of Roe, more than any in the last 46 years, supporters of reproductive rights need to be concerned about the erosion of their constitutionally protected rights. Roe is still the law of the land, but many states are restricting access to abortion services. Last year we said that the U.S. was in danger of becoming ‘The Divided States of Reproductive Health and Rights’ and that danger persists. A woman’s ability to access affordable reproductive health care increasingly depends on where she lives, and if Roe is overturned, or its protections curbed, the legal divide will be even sharper. And, if so, many more women will be effectively denied access to abortion services, and maternity mortality rates will rise as a consequence.”
The National Grade
The U.S., as a whole, received a “D-“. While federal law and federal funding levels remain largely unchanged, new threats emerged in 2018:
· Title X– In a move that jeopardizes the future status of family planning clinics receiving Title X funding, the Trump administration last year drafted a proposed rule that would deny funding to family planning clinics that provide clients with information about the availability of abortion services. The so-called “domestic gag rule” could cut off funding to many of the existing providers, including—but not limited to—Planned Parenthood.
· The ACA’s Contraceptive ‘Mandate” – The Trump Administration finalized regulatory changes to the Affordable Care Act, which would allow employers with “religious” or “moral” objections to drop coverage of contraception in the health insurance policies provided to their employees. Two federal courts have put a stay on the proposed changes to the birth control mandate, but the U.S. Supreme Court has yet to weigh in.
· Conservative Court Appointments – In addition to the appointment of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Senate has confirmed dozens of Trump-nominated judges to the lower federal courts, raising concerns that the federal judiciary will curb access to reproductive health care in the U.S.
State Grades
Ten states (California, Washington, D.C., Hawaii, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington) received an “A” in this year’s report. The 19 states receiving a failing grade in 2018 included Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin.
Understanding the Results
In releasing this year’s 50-State report card, Walker noted that “This year’s report card reflects the fact that reproductive health and rights remain under critical assault at the state and federal levels. While reproductive health advocates scored significant victories in the 2018 elections, the war on reproductive rights is far from over. Over the last eight years 424 abortion restrictions have been passed at the state level.”
The Guttmacher Institute recently reported that in 2018—for the first time in recent years—new policies protecting reproductive rights outnumbered new restrictions. Walker cautioned, however, “No one should be complacent. Anyone concerned about the state of reproductive health and rights in the U.S. should be paying close attention to what is happening at the national, state and local levels. This fight is far from over, and the worst may be yet to come.”
Methodology
Using eleven criteria, the Institute’s report card ranked each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia:
· Thirty percent of the grade is based on measures of effectiveness. This includes the latest available data on the teenage pregnancy rate (15%) and the rate of unintended pregnancies (15%).
· Twenty-five percent of the grade is based upon prevention. This includes mandated comprehensive sex education in the schools (15%), access to emergency contraception (5%), and minors’ access to contraceptive services (5%).
· Twenty-five percent of the grade is based upon affordability. This includes if states are expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (15%), Medicaid eligibility rules for family planning (5%), and restrictions of insurance coverage of abortion (5%).
· The final 20 percent of the grade is based upon clinic access. This includes abortion restrictions (10%), TRAP Laws (5%), and percent of women living in a county without an abortion provider (5%).
Based upon their scores, each state received a “core” grade (A, B, C, D or F), but some states received an additional “plus” or a “minus” for factors not reflected in the core grade.
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For a copy of the report, including a state-by-state breakdown, visit the Population Institute’s website (www.populationinstitute.org/reportcard). For questions about the report, call Jennie Wetter, Director of Public Policy, at (202) 544-3300, ext. 108.
A special thanks to the Guttmacher Institute whose research made this report card possible.
Statement on Proposed Domestic Gag Rule
Last night the Trump-Pence administration unveiled their latest attack on women health and rights, a ‘domestic gag rule’ that will prevent people from getting the health care they need. This proposed domestic gag rule will apply to health care providers seeking Title X grants. Title X is the federal program that supports family planning clinics serving low-income communities in the U.S. The proposed domestic gag rule prevents anyone who receives Title X funding from referring their patients for safe, legal abortion services.
The proposed rule removes the guarantee that patients get full and accurate medical information from their doctors. The rule would allow participating health care providers to withhold any information about abortion services—including potentially life-saving information—from the patient. Under the new rule, participating health care providers would no longer be required to inform patients of all medically approved methods of birth control. Last, the proposed rule blocks the awarding of Title X funding to any provider, including Planned Parenthood, that provides abortion services through an affiliate office.
Robert Walker, President, Population Institute, commented on the proposed domestic gag rule:
In many communities, denying funding to Planned Parenthood and other highly qualified Title X health care providers could have a severe impact on women’s health care. Low-income women desiring the health care services supported by Title X should be able to get those services from a provider they trust. Slamming the door on Planned Parenthood may please social conservatives who oppose abortion and contraceptive services, but it does not help the people being served by Title X. It is, in fact, a subversion of the very reason the law was created in the first place. Title X was designed to improve access to health care services, not to restrict it.
Shutting Planned Parenthood and other qualified health care providers out of the Title X program will limit access to a wide range of health care services, including cancer screenings, STI testing and treatment, and well-woman exams. At present, 4 out of 10 Title X patients receive health care services from a clinic run by Planned Parenthood. If this rule is adopted, many will have nowhere else to turn.
America’s teen pregnancy rate has fallen to an historical low and the rate of unintended pregnancy has fallen to a 30-year low. That progress, unfortunately, could be reversed by this new rule. Shame on the Trump administration.