A July 14 Chicago Tribune story on the passage of the foreign aid bill noted that the House also "rejected an amendment that would have scrapped a restrictive provision prohibiting U.S. funding for any non-governmental group that performs, promotes or advocates abortions overseas as part of a family planning program," in a vote of 221-206.

The July 10 Christian Science reported the "annual ritual" involving a feud over international family planning funding between the White House and Congress. Groups advocating more money for family planning aid estimated that the full $541 million would affect "4.3 million women who would not have unintended pregnancies," thus resulting in "1.5 million fewer unintended births, 2.2 million fewer abortions, 500,000 fewer miscarriages and 8,000 fewer deaths from unsafe abortions each year."

A July/August article from Foreign Affairs argued that the foreign affairs budget needs to generate consensus on funding the "nonmilitary components of national security," including programs to slow population growth and provide access to reproductive health and international family planning.

The on-line magazine Women's E-News ran a July 6 story on the global gag rule, reporting that "cuts in family planning funding could result in 260,000 unwanted pregnancies; 9,400 maternal and infant deaths; 7,400 cases of serious illness or injury related to childbirth and more than 100,000 additional abortions."

A July 14 Washington Post commentary by columnist Judy Mann, "Proclaiming the Wonders of Family Planning," focused on the new PLANet education campaign that seeks to "stress the link between family planning and the welfare of children, families and the environment." Mann noted "there are 150 million people who want contraception but who don't have access to it." Such access is "a right we take for granted in most of the developed world," she said.

For more information, go to: www.familyplanet.org

Most notably, The Washington Post ran a three-part series July 5-7 focusing on the lack of response by policymakers early in the AIDS crisis. The July 5 Post article reported that despite the World Health Organization's 1990 and 1991 AIDS death toll projections of "tens of millions by 2000, individually and collectively, most of those with power decided not to act," including UN agencies and U.S. policymakers.

The July 11 USA TODAY discussed the disease's effect on Africa's demographic structure, citing U.S. Census Bureau projections that by 2010, "life expectancy will be 29 in Botswana, 30 in Swaziland and 33 in Namibia and Zimbabwe, whereas without AIDS, it would have been 70." The UNAIDS agency reported by 2000, "55% of all HIV infections were in women," and by 2020, "the gender balance could be 60% male to 40% female among people of childbearing ages in Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa."

USA TODAY also reported July 12 on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's nearly $50 million contribution for AIDS-related grants, half of which will go to research that could protect women against AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.

Many stories focused on the 16 million AIDS orphans whose situation is detailed in the new UN report, Children on the Brink 2000; the lack of availability of AIDS drugs in Africa and in other developing regions; the controversy over South African President Thabo Mbeki's skepticism on HIV's link to AIDS; and the effectiveness of current prevention efforts around the world.

Elsewhere, Xinhua General News Service on July 11 quoted U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan as saying, "The challenge ahead of us is clear: to find ways to support all of the world's people in peace and dignity, and to ensure that people - especially women - are able to make informed decisions about the size of their families."

A July 4 United Press International article reported that "a report on 'megacities,' those that are now home to 2.5 billion people and forecast 5 billion by 2025, says urban leaders must take radical steps to control poverty, pollution and overpopulation." A July 12 Associated Press article predicted that the millions of migrants to Mumbai, India, will change that city from "the world's fifth most populated city today to the second by 2015."

Agence France Presse reported July 14 on the easing of China's one-child policy and quoted U.S. Undersecretary of State Frank E. Loy, who emphasized that "choice and education are the keywords for the new measures being introduced in the world's most populous nation."

The July 1 New York Times reported that the French Council of State overruled a decision that allowed the distribution of emergency contraception in schools, arguing that "the pill was in the category of drugs that could present a danger if not used under medical supervision."

By contrast, Heritage Foundation researcher Patrick Fagan's July 13 commentary in The Washington Times about domestic family planning proclaimed "President Clinton wants to throw away more money - $2.5 billion over the next decade - to prop up America's morally bankrupt family planning programs."

The Record (Bergen County N.J.) published a July 11 letter to the editor, "Diffusing the Population Bomb," by Bonnie Tillery, population coordinator-N.J. of The Sierra Club. Tillery noted that World Population Day "is a day to think about the impact that more than 6 billion people have on our planet" and "to support international family planning and reproductive health programs that give people the chance to choose smaller and healthier families."