It’s still early, polls are still open in all states. But the suspense! Should I be terrifed or elated? I went out to Whole Foods earlier, and despite the rainy weather, the main thoroughfares that I drove through were thick with Kerry supporters–all out in their parkas, waving their Kerry/Edwards signs, and cars honking in solidarity as they drove past. This is not a city where Bush is welcome, that’s for sure.

Anyway, there’s no need to reiterate all of Bush’s lovely policies. So since my little blog is primarily about healthcare in all of its forms, I will say that Bush’s record on health has been dismal. A disaster. His Medicare drug discount plan, designed to fill the pharm company coffers with gold and little else. No real plan to to help older Americans pay for the soaring rates of pharmaceuticals in this country.

Bush science is another one. Trying to remove the fact that condoms protect against AIDS and other STDS. His abstinence until marriage sex education policies, which he is also trying to force on the rest of the world in exchange for AIDS dollars. Like that’s going to over well for the multitudes of women who work as prostitutes in developing nations, in order to be able to survive. Sigh…

Let’s see, nothing to change the amount of Americans who are uninsured or underinsured. Bush’s scheme are medical savings accounts, which really don’t apply to the vast majority of low wage earners who barely make enough to put food on the table, let alone put some aside for a possible medical emergency.

Not a Ladies Man, That’s for Sure

For the past three years (FY 2002-4), President Bush has refused to release the funds that Congress has appropriated for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)—the world’s largest family planning and reproductive health provider for women. Citing unsubstantiated claims by an anti-family planning group that the agency supported coerced abortion and sterilization in China, the President in FY 2002 denied UNFPA $34 million, which is 12 percent of its annual operating budget. Four separate investigative teams—including one dispatched by the U.S. State Department—have found the charges to be groundless, but that’s not good enough for Bush.

Global Gag

This Reagan-era policy, reinstated by President Bush on January 22, 2001, requires that in exchange for U.S. assistance for family planning services, foreign nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) receiving money through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) must withhold information from women about the option of legal abortion and where to obtain safe abortion services—even if they use only their own funds to do so. Additionally, the groups cannot engage in any public debate or disseminate any information regarding the health hazards of unsafe abortion, express support for any existing laws that support safe abortion, or provide legal abortion services with non-U.S. funding. Astounding, considering that abortion is legal in this country, yet I suppose that Bush feels that if he can’t ban it here, he sure as hell is going to try elsewhere.

The U.S. Now Looks Like a Ship of Fools

U.S. delegations, since Bush took office, have embarrassed themselves at every world health conference they’ve attended, trying to push Bush’s pseudo-Christian morals on the rest of the world. The US basically stands alone.

One recent example is the regional planning meeting of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in March 2004, the United States was the only one of 38 country delegations to oppose a declaration to ensure greater access to reproductive health services, greater efforts at HIV/AIDS prevention, and the protection of reproductive rights for all. We were basically laughed out of the conference.

At the Fifth Asian and Pacific Population Conference, held in Bangkok in December 2002—the Bush administration refused to reaffirm the importance of progress on women’s health and rights. It incorrectly claimed the terms “reproductive health services” and “reproductive rights” “promote abortion.” Adhering to a narrow and unproven “abstinence-only until marriage” policy, it also tried to remove all language citing “consistent condom use” as a viable way of preventing HIV infection. In the end, the U.S. position was resoundedly defeated by a vote of 32-1.

Strange Bedfellows

The Bush administration, in an alliance with Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, Syria, and the Vatican–now talk about a weird partnership–tried to block consensus on quality sexuality education at the UN General Assembly Special Session on Children in May 2002. The U.S. supported preventing young people under 18 from receiving information about sexual abuse , birth control, condoms, and reproductive health services, including HIV/AIDS prevention. Bush again, obsessed with his abstinence-only approach, has no clue as what is going on in the lives of the billions who inhabit the planet. He opposes giving comprehensive information and services for the millions of adolescents worldwide, many of whom are already sexually active, including through arranged early marriage or forced sexual relationships. Information which could save their lives. Look at who the US allied with. Any other democratic nation think it’s okay for teens to die of AIDS, or be forced to have children that they don’t want by denying information about birth control? Nope, not a one. Even some of the most conservative nations in Latin America, Africa and the Middle East thought we had lost it. The US stood alone with some rather strange bedfellows.

Anyway, I could write a book on Bush’s war against sensible science and health policies. I don’t know how Kerry will do, but I can’t imagine that he can possibly do anything worse to the women and children of the world. Right now, at this moment, a woman has probably died in childbirth, directly related to Bush’s withholding of money from the United Nations Fund. A woman has had an abortion for the same reason. And a newborn infant has died, one that was never meant to be, whose mother was too malnourished and anemic. Thanks to the compassionate conservatism of Bush, this scenario will repeat itself many times over.

Happy Election Day. Vote with your conscience.