January 13, 2005

The Influence of the Christian Right in American Policy

The right as George W. Bush=s Political Base

The Moral Majority looks at defeat: In 1999, Paul Weyrich, the man who originally inspired Jerry Falwell to build a AMoral Majority,@ wrote a Dear Friend letter in which he said:

A[Instead of becoming more godly, America is becoming] an ever-wider sewer@ (pp. 1-2).

George W. Bush to the Rescue: That same year, 1999, in the presence of his political strategist, Karl Rove, Bush told televangelist James Robison:

AI feel like God wants me to run for president@ (pp. 10 and 276).

A President chosen by God: In the 2000 elections, white evangelicals B who make up 25 percent of the U.S. population B represented 40 percent of the votes for Bush, with the most religiously observant Catholics representing another 12 percent of the Bush votes (pp. 3, 75 and 260).

Foreign Policy

Reinstating the Mexico City Policy (the AAbortion Gag Rule@): On January 22, 2001, Bush=s first act as president was to sign an executive order reinstating the 1984 Reagan abortion Agag rule,@ which forbids federal funds from being granted to any family planning clinic in the developing world voicing support for abortion, mentioning it as an option to clients, or promoting access to it with their own private funds. This reinstatement of the Policy had the effect of withdrawing tens of millions of dollars from International Planned Parenthood (pp. 6, 64, 66, 136, 139, 219-220 and 224).

De-funding the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA): In January 2002, Bush withheld $34 million in aid appropriated by Congress for the UNFPA, the UN agency which funds family planning services around the world. Bush asserted that the UNFPA supports forced abortions in China B an assertion he did not change despite evidence to the contrary submitted to him, in May 2002, by his own State Department investigating team. As of January 23, 2004, Bush still had not released the money (pp. 139, 225-226 and 309).

De-funding the Reproductive Health for Refugees Consortium: In August 2003, Bush cut off $1 million in grants to the Reproductive Health for Refugees Consortium, on the basis that one of the Consortium=s seven member-organizations, Marie Stopes International, partners with the UNFPA in China. Like the UNFPA, Marie Stopes has an unequivocal position against coercive abortions and, in fact, works in China to reduce such abortions (pp. 139 and 228).

Controlling the Agency for International Development (USAID): In December 2002, Secretary of State Colin Powell sent a policy directive to USAID country-based supervisors, specifying:

A[U.S.-funded HIV prevention programs should] support a strong emphasis on campaigns that promote abstinence, faithfulness, and reduction of the number of partners.@

Powell requested that USAID do more to engage Afaith-based and community organizations,@ and insisted that all AUSAID-funded programs and publications reflect appropriately the policies of the Bush administration,@ including specifically, not accepting prostitution as an Aemployment choice@ and not supporting needle exchange (pp. 6 and 186-187).

USAID changed its Web site accordingly. There were two condom fact sheets on the USAID Web site, both describing condoms as Ahighly effective@ in preventing HIV. One was permanently removed, the other altered to emphasize that Ano barrier method is 100 percent effective@ (p. 122).

Announcing a (Fake) New Global AIDS Initiative: In his 2003, AState of the Union Address,@ Bush announced a new $15 billion, five-year global AIDS initiative. However, Bush:

a. Asked Congress to appropriate only $2 billion in year one.

b. Specified that only name-brand drugs be purchased.

c. Inserted restrictive Abuy American@ provisions.

d. Favored bilateral aid (which can be used for political ends) over the multilateral United Nations Global Fund to Fight AIDS.

e. Tagged 10 percent of the $15 billion B a third of all prevention dollars B for abstinence-only-until-marriage messages B in which mention of condoms is forbidden.

f. Left in place a USAID ban on support for syringe exchange.

g. Added a ban on endorsing prostitution.

h. Stipulated that churches and missionary operations should receive special consideration in the awarding of grants.

i. Inserted a Aconscience clause@ allowing religious groups to reject any HIV-prevention strategy they find morally objectionable and still receive U.S. funds (pp. 154, 188-189 and 217).

Removing the American Medical Association (AMA) at the United Nations: Bush has removed the AMA from the American delegations to United Nations summits on children=s issues, replacing the Association with Concerned Women for America, a group which has campaigned for the United States to pull out of the United Nations, or at least, refuse to pay its dues. The group sees the UN as threatening to reach down into the privacy of American homes, legislate sexual mores and dictate how parents should raise their children (pp. 31 and 64).

Shelving the UN Convention of the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW): Bush has made a turnabout on this international women=s rights treaty, shelving it for Acareful review.@ Concerned Women for America has insisted that the Convention would Ahand over our rights@ to decide our own laws on such issues as Afamily law, parental rights, religious exercise, education, abortion regulation, employment pay scales, quotas in educational institutions, workplaces and elected offices, and homosexual privileges@ and Aforbid us@ from recognizing Athat men and women are fundamentally different@ (pp. 31 and 135).

Having God at the Helm: According to then newly-appointed Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, on June 2003, Bush, in a private meeting, declared to him:

AGod told me strike at al-Qaeda and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East@ (p. 9).

Domestic Policy

Nominating an Anti-Abortion Attorney General: As President-elect, Bush nominated John Ashcroft, the choice of the Christian Right, for Attorney General. Ashcroft opposes abortion even in the case of rape or incest, and has declared the anniversary of the 1973 Roe v. Wade legalization of abortion, a Aday in memoriam@ for aborted fetuses (pp. 134-137).

Launching an Office of AFaith-based Initiatives@: In 2001, Bush launched his Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives, lifting a number of long-standing regulations that once safeguarded the church/state divide. By means of a series of executive orders issued in 2002 and 2003, the Initiative would soon channel millions of federal dollars to such mainstays of the Religious Right as Pat Robertson and National Right to Life, as well as to church-run welfare and abstinence programs across the country. There are now faith-based offices in seven federal departments and agencies, including Labor, Justice, Health and Human Services (HHS), and the Agency for International Development (USAID) (pp. 6, 39-40, 42, 62 and 275).

In December 2002, Bush issued regulations which allow religious organizations receiving federal funds to discriminate on religious grounds, paving the way for Christian fundamentalists to refuse to hire gays (p. 153).

In February 2003, addressing the annual conference of the National Religious Broadcasters (a media lobby led by evangelical leaders such as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson), Bush declared:

AThe role of government is limited, because government cannot put hope in people=s hearts or a sense of purpose in people=s lives. That happens when someone puts an arm around a neighbor and says, >God loves you=@ (pp. 40-41).

Curtailing Stem Cell Research: In 2001, Bush announced that he would permit federal funding for research on adult stem cells, and those embryonic stem cell lines already being cultivated in laboratories. However, in order to protect the Apotential for life@ of embryos, he would ban all research on any other embryonic stem cells. According to Science, sixteen cell lines are now available for the use of scientists receiving federal funding, but only four of these are available to researchers who are not directly collaborating with the laboratories where these lines were developed (pp. 6 and 125-126).

In early September 2001, during a prime-time televised address to the nation, Bush declared:

AI ... believe human life is a sacred gift from our Creator. I worry about a culture that devalues life, and believe as your president, I have an important obligation to foster and encourage respect for life in America and throughout the world@ (pp. 125-126).

(Banning embryonic stem cell research does not save embryos, as the vast majority of frozen embryos are discarded. However, it does encourage the idea that embryos, like fetuses, have a personhood) (pp. 126 and 139).

Equating Embryo with Child:

AProtecting@ Life: In January 2002, calling in his greetings to the March for Life, Bush declared:

AThat is why my administration opposes partial-birth abortion and public funding for abortion, why we support teen abstinence and crisis pregnancy programs, adoption, and parental notification laws, and why we are against all forms of human cloning@ (pp. 141-142).

Giving Health Coverage to Embryos: In February 2002, Bush issued an order extending the coverage of the State Children=s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to fetuses and embryos, but not to their pregnant mothers. The Program offers health services to children in low-income families (pp. 139 and 297).

Defining Embryos as AHuman Subjects@: In October 2002, Bush modified the charter of a human research advisory committee to declare that embryos are henceforth to be considered Ahuman subjects@ (pp. 139-140 and 297).

Promoting AEmbryo Adoption@: In June 2003, Bush turned over more than a million dollars to the Christian pro-life group Snowflakes, to promote Aembryo adoption,@ a term which implies an equivalence between embryo and child B even though most frozen embryos are not healthy enough to ever grow to full term, even if implanted (pp. 140 and 297).

Signing a Partial-birth Abortion Ban: In November 2003, Bush signed a Apartial-birth abortion@ ban into law B the first national ban on an abortion procedure since abortion became legal in 1973. Attorney General John Ashcroft assigned enforcement of the law to the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice B a move institutionalizing the idea of civil rights for fetuses. Three months later, Ashcroft subpoenaed hundreds of hospital records of women who had undergone abortions, claiming a need to access the private files so as to defend the ban. The ban is being challenged in court for its lack of clarity about early abortions and for failing to provide an exception to protect a woman=s health (pp. 6, 129, 135 and 147).

Signing an Unborn Victims of Violence Act (UVVA): In April 2004, Bush signed the Unborn Victims of Violence Act which recognizes a fetus as a second legal victim when a pregnant woman is killed, thus declaring fetuses to be full persons for the purposes of criminal prosecution (pp. 6 and 146).

Promoting Abstinence-only-until-marriage Programs: In early 2002, Bush proposed a third increase in federal funding for abstinence-only-until-marriage programs B to $135 million, hoping to increase this further, to $270 million, before the end of his term. Bush has, on other occasions and in particular, during his January 2004, AState of the Union Address,@ described abstinence-only-until-marriage as a Acharacter@ issue (pp. 6, 144, 186, 198 and 305).

Controlling the National Center for Environment Health: In August 2002, Bush engineered the wholesale replacement of advisors to the National Center for Environment Health [part of the Center for Disease Control (CDC)], without consulting the Center=s director. New members include Sharon Falkenheimer, member of the Christian Medical Association, and Harold Koenig, who has written about the power of prayer in healing. Neither appears to have expertise in environmental toxins (pp. 109 and 293).

Controlling the Center for Disease Control (CDC):

1. Changing a Condom Web Site: In October 2002, without consulting the relevant staff, the head of the CDC pulled from the Center=s Web site information on the reasons for condom effectiveness, and replaced it with information emphasizing condom failure rates and a recommendation of abstinence (pp. 89, 120, 186, 192 and 304).

2. Terminating the APrograms that Work@ Web Site: In 2002, Bush ordered the CDC to terminate its Programs that Work Project, which identified on the Web the five most effective sex education programs in the country B all using a comprehensive risk-reduction approach. Indeed, the Project was deleted from the CDC Web site (pp. 121 and 186).

Controlling the National Cancer Institute: In November 2002, a National Cancer Institute Web site fact sheet, AAbortion and Breast Cancer,@ which sharply denied the alleged link between the abortion and breast cancer, was replaced by one entitled, AAbortion, Miscarriage and Breast Cancer Risk,@ which asserts that earlier, smaller studies have found Asignificant evidence of an increased risk of breast cancer in women who have had abortions,@ and announcing a special conference to re-open the scientific debate. The move, unsupported by 10 years of scientific evidence, was hailed by the Christian Right which claims that abortions hurt the woman as well as the fetus (pp. 121-122, 145 and 295).

Eliminating a Gay/Lesbian Liaison: In 2002, Bush eliminated the position of White House liaison to the gay and lesbian community (p. 151).

Appointing Ideologues on the Presidential AIDS Advisory Council: Bush waited a full year after his election to appoint members of this AIDS advisory council. At present, none of the council=s 34 members is a representative of a major national AIDS organization. The Council does include, however, nine longtime advocates of abstinence-only HIV prevention (pp. 64, 169, 175-177 and 211).

Proposing a Drug Treatment Voucher Program: In his January 2003, AState of the Union Address,@ Bush proposed a three-year, $600 million drug treatment voucher program. By channeling the funds to individuals through vouchers, rather than to institutions through grants, Bush=s proposal promotes the spending of federal money on pervasively religious programs B and even on evangelizing (p. 55).

Announcing a (Fake) AAdvancing HIV Prevention Plan@: In April 2003, the CDC released its AAdvancing HIV Prevention Plan,@ which it had developed without notification of any of the main AIDS organizations, such as Gay Men=s Health Crisis or the National Association of People with AIDS.

The initiative focuses almost exclusively on intervening with people who already have HIV, emphasizing Apersonal responsibility@ B thereby echoing the first official communication, in spring 2002, from the presidential AIDS council to the President, in which the council twice mentioned the Aresponsibility [of people with HIV] to not infect someone else.@

The Plan also emphasizes testing those who do not know their status (but not offering new treatment dollars), and preventing mother-to-child transmission B which is responsible for less than 200 infections a year in the U.S. The Plan does not mention gay men or drug users, populations which experience 20,000 to 30,000 infections each year (pp. 190-192).

Endorsing a Constitutional Amendment banning same-sex Marriage: In February 2004, Bush threw his weight behind a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage:

AIf we are to prevent the meaning of marriage from being changed forever, our nation must enact a constitutional amendment to protect marriage in America.... Today, I call upon the Congress to promptly pass, and to send to the states for ratification, an amendment to our Constitution defining and protecting marriage as a union of man and woman as husband and wife@ (pp. 6, 157-158 and 160).

Making Christian Right Appointments: Bush has made the following appointments:

2. Kay Cole James to be in charge of his Office of Personnel. James is a former dean at Pat Robertson=s Regent University. In her 1995 book, Transforming America from the Inside Out, James likens gay people to alcoholics, adulterers and drug addicts (p. 84).

3. Alma Golden as deputy assistant of population affairs in the Population Office of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which oversees the country=s federally funded Title X family planning clinics, mandated to offer contraception and pregnancy counseling to both adults and youth. Golden is an abstinence advocate, disparages condoms and birth control, and insists that young people avoid sex altogether. She has argued for limiting confidential access to family planning services for teens, and has sought to inject a pro-life bias into Title X pregnancy counseling, directing that adoption receive more emphasis than abortion (pp. 84 and 137-138).

4. Claude Allen as deputy secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. Allen is a former aide to Jesse Helms, an abstinence-only-until-marriage, anti-abortion and anti-gay advocate who has characterized abortion as genocidal for the African American community. He encourages individuals and organizations to write language into contracts forswearing the right to sue, and chose instead Abiblically-based mediation@ (pp. 84, 122, 138, 251 and 257).

5. David Hager to the Reproductive Drugs Advisory Committee of the Federal Drug Administration (FDA). Hager is a physician, Christian book author, and former leader of the efforts by the Christian Right to block FDA approval of the early abortion pill, RU-486 (pp. 84-85).

6. Tom Coburn as co-chair of his presidential advisory council on HIV/AIDS. Coburn, a physician and former congressman, is strongly anti-gay, anti-condom, and an advocate of abstinence-only-until-marriage (pp. 85, 112, 152, 168, 170-174, 176-177 and 191).

7. Lou Sheldon as advisor for the spring 2001, Faith-based Summit, Bush=s launching pad for his initiative. Sheldon is the founder of the virulently anti-gay group, Traditional Values Coalition, (p. 85)

Stacking the Federal Appeals Courts:

1. Removing the American Bar Association (ABA) as a vetting Agency: Bush has removed the ABA, a mainstream organization with 400,000 members, from the opportunity to vet judicial nominees, and replaced it by the right-wing Federalist Society which has 25,000 members.

The Federalist Society advocates strict federalism, which includes a belief that neither the federal government nor the federal courts should have a say in laws protecting the environment, civil rights, or workplace safety. It backs government funding of religion through voucher programs, and strongly opposes Roe v. Wade. Of the President=s nominees to the federal appeals courts, 40 percent have been Society members (pp. 64, 262-265 and 313).

Nominating Christian Right Members: The following nominees are now on the federal bench:

Michael McConnell, who has called Roe v. Wade a Agross misinterpretation of the Constitution,@ and has argued before the Supreme Court in defense of the Boy Scouts= right to discriminate against gay youth (pp. 6, 140 and 151).

William Pryor, who has called Roe v. Wade Athe worst abomination of constitutional law in our history,@ has compared gay sexuality to prostitution, adultery, necrophilia, incest, pedophilia and bestiality, and has aggressively embraced government-endorsed religion (pp. 140, 152, 249 and 257).

Timothy Tymkovich, who, as Colorado Solicitor General, defended an amendment to the state constitution blocking the state from paying for abortions even in the case of rape or incest, and who argued before the Supreme Court in favor of Colorado=s anti-gay Amendment 2, prohibiting local governments from enacting gay and lesbian civil rights protections (pp. 140 and 151).

Dennis Shedd, who, as a district court judge, excused the group South Carolina Citizens for Life from complying with campaign finance laws (p. 140).

Charles Pickering, who just three years after the Roe v. Wade decision, helped push through a Republican party plank calling for an anti-abortion amendment to the Constitution (pp. 140-141).

Reference

All page numbers refer to:

Kaplan, Esther, With God on their Side B How Christian Fundamentalists trampled Science, Policy and Democracy in George W. Bush=s White House (The New Press, New York, N.Y.), 2004.

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