WASHINGTON, DC (CWNews.com) - President Bill Clinton on Saturday proposed increasing spending on "family planning" by $35 million next year, the largest increase in 20 years.

    Clinton said during his weekly radio address that his 2001 budget proposal would include money for contraceptives aimed at poor women and teenagers, bringing the total budget amount to $274 million. "By making sure women have family planning choices, we are helping to make abortion more rare," Clinton said. Planned Parenthood of America, the nation's largest abortion provider, receives millions of dollars every year from the US government under the "family planning" appropriation.

    Clinton also said he will push Congress to lift restrictions on funding international population control groups that promote abortion in the countries where they work.

    Rep. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey, warned that money earmarked for international family planning can be shifted easily to "abortion-related activities." He added, "By choosing these abortionists and abortion lobbyists as our overseas representatives for family planning, we send a message that the US is on the side of the abortionists, not the babies."