HEALTH:
London Never Further from New York

Sanjay Suri


LONDON,  (IPS) - There could hardly be two conferences taking place at the same time whose aims would be further apart than the Republican Party convention in New York and the reproductive health conference in London. Both meetings begin end of this month.

The U.S. Administration under President George W. Bush axed funds to UN and other independent agencies providing reproductive health care almost first thing after coming to office. The Bush administration decided to cut funding to a non- governmental organisation (NGO) even if it does no more than provide information on abortion.

The London conference called by NGOs to mark ten years after the International Conference on Population and Development held in Cairo in 1994 will assess the damage done by the withdrawal of U.S. support and search ways to get the Cairo aim of reproductive health care to all by 2014 back on track.

So far as the worldview at the two conferences goes, London has never been further from New York. To the London delegates, the New York gathering represents a principal adversary. What the Republican administration has failed to do will be discussed at some length at Countdown 2015, as the London conference has been named.

Director-general of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), the largest NGO providing reproductive health services says without hesitation that "the Republican convention will pay no attention to us." But a lot will depend on what the press does, he says.

Clashing ideas are connected for that reason and New York media could make that connection even if the Republican Party convention does not. A few NGOs do not imagine they can match the power of the ruling party of the United States, and they are relying on the power of communication.

"We will be calling the world's attention to the grave damage that the Bush administration is doing to reproductive health around the world," Sinding told IPS.

But the call from London will echo also a domestic U.S. conflict. "John Kerry (the Democrat candidate for president) has said he would reinstate the funding on his first day in office," Sinding said.

The decision of the Bush administration to withdraw resources meant an immediate loss of 34 million dollars a year to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and of 15 million dollars a year to IPPF. "That meant a loss of about 50 million dollars a year to the two largest organisations directly providing services to couples," Sinding said.

On the ground that has meant among other things closed clinics, contraceptives not purchased, a rise in unwanted pregnancies and consequent unsafe abortions, Sinding said. "And that is the irony, because the practical effect of the U.S. policy has been the opposite of what it wanted."

U.S. officials have said that the money has been redirected to other programmes, "but you cannot take 50 million dollars from the two largest organisations and immediately provide substitutes for services we are not longer able to provide."

As the London meeting prepares strategies to take on the power the New York meeting represents, it is looking to counter also the seat of the Roman Catholic church in Rome. Not always separately, because the Bush administration has developed close links with the Vatican on this issue, says Frances Kissling, president of the Washington-based Catholics for Free Choice.

"For one thing President George Bush was very closely involved in during his election campaign was an effort to reach out to conservative Catholics," Kissling told IPS. "As a part of this he made a special effort to make conservative Catholics happy by being aggressive in the UN on these issues."

But the link is also more functional. "John Klink was for example on the Vatican delegation to the UN, and now the U.S. delegation includes John Klink. And there are other close allies of the Vatican who are now in the U.S. delegation to the UN on these issues," Kissling said.

The London meeting has been called by and for NGOs, but it is gathering what political support it can. The conference will be addressed by British minister for international development Hilary Benn and by European Union development commissioner Poul Nielson.

Several governments from Africa and Latin America who have bluntly rejected pressures from the Vatican and the U.S. governments are also offering their support to the conference.

"But we do not control the purse strings," said Sinding. "All we can do is to marshal the strongest arguments we can and hope that governments will be persuaded."