[originaltext] Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright criticized B

Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright criticized Bush administration family planning policies at a women’s health conference Monday.
   President Bush has threatened to veto bills that lift restrictions on U.S. family planning aid to health cen ters abroad that promote or perform abortions. Republican administrations have also barred U.S. money from international groups that support abortion, even with their own money.
   Albright said giving women the power to make their own choices means healthier women, children and societies. The former Clinton administration official said pregnancy related complications are the leading cause of death of women of child-bearing age, killing 600,000 a year worldwide.
   "We need political leaders committed to giving women the power to choose,’ Albright said.
   Albright, the chairwoman of the  Ministerial Initiative of the Council of Women World Leaders, spoke at a women’s health conference sponsored by Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, the Council of Women World Leaders and Realizing Rights, a group founded by former Irish President Mary Robinson. The three-day conference is being held at the Wye-Aspen Conference Center.
   Women’s health advocates also need to make leaders aware of the benefits health initiatives can have on ensuring stability.
   "Health is viewed as a soft issue, what has to be done is it has to be viewed as a tough, hard security issue," Albright said.
   Robinson and Children’s Defense Fired founder Marian Wright Edelman also spoke at the conference.
   Edelman said the lives of women and children are "inextricably interrelated" and the United States is failing its children, ranking 25th in infant mortality and last among 16 industrialized nations in child poverty.
   Robinson said the United States could be a model for the rest of the world by building successful pro grams and then linking the an to international programs. Edelman, however, said change will not come without a struggle, urging advocacy groups to build alliances and agitate for change with "votes, voices and demonstrations.