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Results for “Helms Amendment”

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16 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1994

Agency announces policy on use of U.S. dollars to fund abortions.

In an April 1994 statement, the USAID articulated its current policy on abortion. Reiterating the Clinton Administration's view that abortions should be "safe, legal, and rare," the policy remains surprisingly close to the positions of the Reagan and Bush Administrations. According to the Helms Amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act (FAA), AID monies cannot be used for the "performance of abortion as a method of family planning." Under the previous Administrations, AID ceased all abortion funding based on this restrictive language. The Clinton Administration policy notes that AID neither "advocate[s] the use of abortion as a method of family planning" nor "use[s] its policies or programs to restrict ... [the] right to choose" abortion. Yet it interprets the Helms Amendment to permit abortion funding only in cases of rape, incest, and life endangerment--the same conditions placed on federal Medicaid funds by the Hyde Amendment. Funds can also be used for the treatment of complications caused by unsafe, incomplete, or septic abortions. Because the US is a major contributor to population and family planning programs, a change in AID policy can have a widespread impact on the reproductive health of women worldwide, especially in developing countries. Up to 167,000 women are estimated to die each year as a result of unsafe abortion and its complications.

Abortion, Induced↗
PubMed1994

Anti-choice amendment to foreign funding bill fails in Senate.

In a 42 to 58 roll call vote on July 14, the Senate rejected an anti-choice amendment introduced by Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC) during floor debate on the fiscal 1995 Foreign Operations Appropriations bill. The amendment would have proscribed the use of federal dollars for lobbying foreign governments to change their abortion policies. Among the activities that would have been prohibited were efforts by federal agencies and officers of the executive branch, including support for resolutions or participation in activities of multilateral organizations that seek to change or alter abortion laws. In addition, the amendment sought to forbid the use of federal funds by any multilateral or private organization that seeks to alter abortion laws or policies. Many members of the Senate opposed the amendment because it would have restricted United States involvement in the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), which will be held in Cairo, Egypt, in September 1994. The amendment was also seen as an attack on the Clinton Administration's policy that abortion should be "safe, legal, and rare."

Abortion, Induced↗
PubMed2001

Polychlorinated naphthalenes in U.K. soils: time trends, markers of source, and equilibrium status.

Polychlorinated naphthalenes (PCNs) have been analyzed in archived soil from the U.K. to investigate historical trends. Samples were obtained from the Broadbalk experiment plots (1944-1986) and Luddington experiment station (1968-1990). Luddington samples also include a set of soils that received a one-time sludge treatment in 1968, and duplicate samples of this archived sludge were also analyzed. Peak residues of sumPCN (sum of all PCN congeners quantified) were approximately 9000 pg g(-1) dry weight in 1956, declining to approximately 300 pg g(-1) in contemporary soils. The one-time sludge application resulted in elevated soil residues that were 1.5-6 times higher than the control plot over the time series. This increase is consistent with the known application rate and the amount of sumPCN in the applied sludge (approximately 250,000 pg g(-1) dry wt). Half-lives forthe Luddington control soil and the sludge-amended soil for the period 1972-1990 were 5.3 and 9.9 years, respectively. Investigation of time trends revealed differences between homologue groups with the higher molecular weight congeners peaking earlier in the time series (pre-1950) and the lower molecular weight congeners peaking later, ca. 1970. Time trends of individual congeners were investigated in terms of their relative mass percent contribution to the sum of their homologue group. Significant (p < 0.05) increasing trends were observed for several congeners associated with combustion sources (CN-29, -51, -52/60, -54, and -66/67) suggesting that combustion related sources are more important now than they were in the past. However, no decreasing trend was observed for congeners that were thought to be susceptible to degradation by photolysis suggesting that this may not be a key elimination pathway of PCNs in the environment. A simple calculation of the fugacity status of PCNs in air and soil showed that the tri-CNs are exhibiting net outgassing, while the penta-CNs are still being deposited to soil. Interestingly, the penta-CNs associated with combustion show the largest gradient for air-to-soil transfer, supporting the notion that combustion sources are important contributors to contemporary air burdens of these congeners.

Air Pollutants↗