The Foreign Service Journal, April 2012

need of all those families. (Countries that received U.S. family planning aid and have already reached stability be- tween births and deaths include In- donesia, Mexico, South Korea and Thailand.) Over the past decade, even as total U.S. foreign aid tripled to more than $20 billion a year, family planning as- sistance actually fell to $460 million by 2008. For example, $244 million in aid over eight years to the U.N. Fund for Population Activities was cut after U.S. officials declared there had been some sharing of space by UNFPA and Chi- nese officials accused of forced abor- tions and sterilizations. There was a time when prominent Republican leaders, including George H.W. Bush (both as a member of Con- gress and president), supported family planning; some, such as Representative Frank Wolf, R-Va., still do. But since the Reagan administration, most con- servatives have moved to tighten re- strictions on access to family planning. For instance, the so-called “Mexico City rules,” first issued in 1984, prevent any group receiving U.S. funds from even discussing abortion with families getting birth control aid. (The use of such aid for actual abortions has been illegal since the 1973 Helms Amend- ment.) Also called the “gag rule,” that policy has regularly been imposed by Republican administrations and an- nulled by Democratic ones. Due to the economic downturn, U.S. family planning assistance, which climbed to $648 million in Fiscal Year 2010, dropped to $615 million in FY 2011 and $610 million in FY 2012. The administration has requested an in- crease to $643 million in its FY 2013 budget, but prospects are not encour- aging. House Republicans have al- ready voted three times to cut interna- tional family planning, notes Boonstra. Last year alone, these funds: • Provided contraceptives to 39 mil- lion women and couples • Prevented 12 million unintended pregnancies and five million unplanned births • Prevented five million abortions (four million of them unsafe) • Prevented 33,000maternal deaths. 40 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / A P R I L 2 0 1 2 Most population growth is occurring in the poorest countries on earth, which cannot feed and educate their current inhabitants. The ABCs of Education Allowances By Pamela Ward Online High School Courses By Kristi Streiffert Online Education: Unprecedented Opportunities By Kristi Streiffert Community College: Time To Take Another Look? By Rebecca Grappo Getting Found: Global Nomads 2.0 By Mikkela Thompson Building Resiliency in Global Nomads By Rebecca Grappo Flying Solo — Going to College from Overseas: A Guide for Parents By Rebecca Grappo Special-Needs Kids and the Foreign Service: Dispelling the Myths By Pamela Ward The Boarding School Option: A Tent for a Global Nomad By Pamela Ward How to Choose The College That’s Right For You By Francesca Huemer Kelly The International Baccalaureate Program: A Primer By Francesca Huemer Kelly Taking A Gap Year By Ingrid Ahlgren FAQ: Educating Special Needs Children Overseas By Francesca Kelly Going To College In America By Francesca Huemer Kelly Study Abroad: Take The Plunge By Brooke Deal Lost And Found: International School Reunions By Mikkela Thompson Applying to U.S. Colleges: A Primer for FS Teens By Francesca Huemer Kelly Dip Kids Fill Void at U.S. Colleges By Antje Schiffler A RCHIVE OF Articles onEducation Make this collection of authoritative Foreign Service Journal articles the starting point for planning your children’s education. Go to www.afsa.org/schools_supplement.aspx for a PDF of these articles. DeanMitchell/iStockphoto.com