New York, NY – Today the Bush administration, faced with the embarrassing possibility that its abortion gag would censor the testimony of a witness before Congress, backed away from the Global Gag Rule’s limitation on abortion rights advocacy. As a result, Susana Galdos Silva, a Peruvian reproductive rights advocate, is free to speak before a hearing in the U.S. Senate on Thursday about the gag rule’s limitations on abortion law reform in her nation, without jeopardizing U.S. funding.

Although free to testify before the Senate on this one occasion, Ms. Galdos remains censored by the gag rule’s restrictions against discussing abortion law reform in any other circumstance on any other day. This means she is censored from speaking before Peru’s legislature, the United Nations, or to members of the press.

"Only when faced with the reality of the gag rule’s policy in practice - that an individual would be censored from speaking freely before Congress – was the Bush administration forced to concede that the gag rule is indefensible. Americans should be free to work with foreign partners to reform abortion laws without interference by the U.S. government," said Simon Heller, Director of Domestic Programs at the Center for Reproductive Law Rights, which is challenging the Global Gag Rule in the case CRLP v. Bush.

The government’s concession was made at a federal court proceeding at which teh Center sought an injunction against the gag rule so that Ms. Galdos would be permitted to speak freely about the impact of the gag rule in her country. Based on the government’s assurances that Ms. Galdos’s Congressional testimony will not result in revocation of her U.S. funding, U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska denied the Center's request.

Ms. Galdos was invited to testify before the Senate by Barbara Boxer (D-CA), who is chairing a hearing on the Global Gag Rule on Thursday, July 19 at 10A.M. in Room 419 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building. Ms. Galdos will testify that her organization supports liberalizing Peru’s strict abortion law, which makes abortion a crime in nearly every circumstance, unless it is performed to save a woman’s life or to prevent permanent damage to her health.

For more information, see:

Global Gag Rule Resource Page