Obama Reverses Global Gag Rule!
From Pro Choice Massachusetts:
Today, President Obama abolished a centerpiece of the Bush Administration’s legacy of playing politics with women’s health and well-being. By reversing the “global gag rule,” the President has taken a courageous, common sense step that will save women’s lives and promote healthy families. Once again, citizens of the United States can stand tall, knowing that we are doing our part to improve access to family planning for some of the poorest women around the globe.
For eight long years, women and families in the developing world have suffered under this pernicious policy. The global gag rule choked off critical family planning funds, leaving millions of women with no access to contraception and counseling to help them plan and space their children and protect themselves against disease. Worldwide, 80 million women face an unintended pregnancy each year. And half a million women - the equivalent of one woman a minute - die from complications of pregnancy or childbirth, including unsafe or illegal abortion. It is unconscionable that, under President Bush, our government denied funds that could have prevented these tragedies.
President Obama’s action is an important reminder that elections matter. Pro-choice Americans worked long and hard to help elect him because we knew it was the best way to reverse divisive, anti-choice policies that harm women and their families. Yesterday, on the 36th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the President noted that this landmark decision ‘not only protects women's health and reproductive freedom, but stands for a broader principle: that government should not intrude on our most private family matters.’ He reminded us that ‘we must work to find common ground to expand access to affordable contraception, accurate health information, and preventative services . . . and recommit ourselves more broadly to ensuring that our daughters have the same rights and opportunities as our sons.’ We salute him for his leadership in this historic week.
Background: First imposed by President Reagan by executive order in 1984, the “global gag rule” currently prohibits the State Department (including the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)) from granting family planning funds to any overseas health center unless it agrees not to use its own, private, non-U.S. funds for abortion services, abortion-related advocacy (including efforts to demonstrate the harmful effects of bans on abortion), or abortion counseling or referrals (even if a woman’s life or health is in danger). The policy was reversed by President Clinton when he took office in January 1993, only to be reinstated and expanded by President Bush in his first days in office in January 2001. Throughout this entire period, U.S. law has prohibited the use of U.S. funding for abortions overseas.
Today, President Obama abolished a centerpiece of the Bush Administration’s legacy of playing politics with women’s health and well-being. By reversing the “global gag rule,” the President has taken a courageous, common sense step that will save women’s lives and promote healthy families. Once again, citizens of the United States can stand tall, knowing that we are doing our part to improve access to family planning for some of the poorest women around the globe.
For eight long years, women and families in the developing world have suffered under this pernicious policy. The global gag rule choked off critical family planning funds, leaving millions of women with no access to contraception and counseling to help them plan and space their children and protect themselves against disease. Worldwide, 80 million women face an unintended pregnancy each year. And half a million women - the equivalent of one woman a minute - die from complications of pregnancy or childbirth, including unsafe or illegal abortion. It is unconscionable that, under President Bush, our government denied funds that could have prevented these tragedies.
President Obama’s action is an important reminder that elections matter. Pro-choice Americans worked long and hard to help elect him because we knew it was the best way to reverse divisive, anti-choice policies that harm women and their families. Yesterday, on the 36th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the President noted that this landmark decision ‘not only protects women's health and reproductive freedom, but stands for a broader principle: that government should not intrude on our most private family matters.’ He reminded us that ‘we must work to find common ground to expand access to affordable contraception, accurate health information, and preventative services . . . and recommit ourselves more broadly to ensuring that our daughters have the same rights and opportunities as our sons.’ We salute him for his leadership in this historic week.
Background: First imposed by President Reagan by executive order in 1984, the “global gag rule” currently prohibits the State Department (including the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)) from granting family planning funds to any overseas health center unless it agrees not to use its own, private, non-U.S. funds for abortion services, abortion-related advocacy (including efforts to demonstrate the harmful effects of bans on abortion), or abortion counseling or referrals (even if a woman’s life or health is in danger). The policy was reversed by President Clinton when he took office in January 1993, only to be reinstated and expanded by President Bush in his first days in office in January 2001. Throughout this entire period, U.S. law has prohibited the use of U.S. funding for abortions overseas.