Todd Tiahrt: “This amendment is to provide a definition for the term ``voluntary'' for organizations which provide family planning…”

“This amendment is to provide a definition for the term ``voluntary'' for organizations which provide family planning assistance overseas. Certain restrictions already exist on this financial aid, and they are that none of the funds can be used to pay for abortions, that none of the funds can go to organizations which support coercive abortions or involuntary sterilization, and the programs that are to be used are to be totally voluntary. This does not change any of those current restrictions. It does change the definition, but, however, neither the law nor the regulations under the United States Agency for International Development or USAID, those regulations do not define the term of ``voluntary.'' As a result, there has been gross violations of human rights. Human rights organizations have reported that nations across the globe that receive USAID funds are committing practices such as bribes to women to use experimental chemicals without warning them of any side effects. They are demanding sterilization quotas from health providers which prey on poor women and surpass their own means of doing so safely, resulting in death or permanent injury. In Peru, as reported by the New York Times and other major papers across the Nation, as my chart indicates, women were coerced into sterilization and in some cases this resulted in death. This does not change or add any restrictions to funds that USAID distributes.”