Bush's Funding Duplicity

Shortly after Bush took office, his administration instituted a "gag rule" that required international family planning agencies that accepted U.S. funds not to discuss abortion as an option. Their rationale: the agencies could not guarantee that U.S. funds would not be used to "promote" abortion, so they either had to eliminate abortion from their discussions or lose the funding. The result is a chilling effect on the quality of family planning information available in needy countries.

Just this week, the Bush administration said it wanted to allow U.S. housing funds to be used by religious groups for building and facility rehab projects. Their rationale: the funds can be used to create areas for community use -- drug rehab or after-school care for children, for example --as long as they aren't used for religious purposes. Seems the Prez believes this restriction sufficiently skirts the Constitutional separation of church and state.

Seems the Prez has greater confidence in the accounting ability of small, local religious groups to keep private and public donations separate than it does in large, sophisticated organizations to keep the funds separate.

Does this man's duplicity know no bounds?

© Copyright 2003 Keith Jameson. Last update: 1/27/2003; 8:54:40 AM.