Charities React to Repeal of Global Gag Rule

Charities that provide family-planning services are celebrating Barack Obama’s repeal today of a policy that prevented government money from supporting groups that counsel women overseas on the availability of abortion.

Known as the “global gag rule,” the policy was first implemented 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, Planned Parenthood’s president, 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.”

Advocacy organizations that oppose abortion raised concerns about the move.

In a statement on its Web site, the group 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 in promoting abortion in developing countries.”