Political Quotes

“I regret that the Senate is in a position to address this issue once again because the Senate has spoken on many occasions in support of international family planning. So I think it is unfortunate that we are here today to have to fight an amendment that, basically, would decimate family planning support by the U.S. Government on behalf of international family planning programs around the country. I think everybody knows that the United States has traditionally been a leader in international family planning assistance. This has been the case ever since this issue rose to international prominence with the 1974 U.N. Population Conference in Bucharest. At that time, a number of Third World developing countries perceived family planning as a Western effort to reduce the power and influence of Third World countries. It is a sad irony that we are here today because the U.S. Government became a leader on this issue to influence the Third World countries, to insert themselves into the developing family planning programs. They have done that. We have been a traditional leader in international family planning and have had unrivaled influence worldwide for setting standards for these programs. An estimated 50 million families around the globe use family planning as a direct result of U.S. leadership and population assistance programs.”