February 12, 2009 | Read Time: 1 minute
Family-planning groups are welcoming Barack Obama’s repeal last month of a policy that prevented government money from supporting charities that counsel women overseas on the availability of abortion.
Known as the “global gag rule,” the policy was first adopted by President Reagan and later reinstated by President George W. Bush when he took office in January 2001.
“With the stroke of a pen, President Obama has lifted the stranglehold on women’s health across the globe,” Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a statement. “His repeal of the global gag rule ends eight long years of policies that have blocked access to health care for women worldwide.”
In rescinding the rule three days after he took office, President Obama said in a statement that its provisions were “unnecessarily broad and unwarranted under current law.” He pledged to work to end the “politicization” of family-planning assistance.
But some advocacy organizations that oppose abortion voiced concerns about the move.
In a statement on its Web site, National Right to Life said that President Obama’s move would “divert many millions of dollars away from groups that do not promote abortion, and into the hands of those organizations that are the most aggressive at promoting abortion in developing countries.”
