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WASHINGTON – In a long-expected move, President Barack Obama plans to sign an executive order ending the ban on federal funds for international groups that perform abortions or provide information on the option, officials told The Associated Press on Friday.
Liberal groups welcomed the decision while abortion rights foes criticized the president. Known as the "Mexico City policy," the ban has been reinstated and then reversed by Republican and Democratic presidents since GOP President Ronald Reagan established it in 1984. President Bill Clinton ended the ban in 1993, but President George W. Bush re-instituted it in 2001 as one of his first acts in office.
The policy bans U.S. taxpayer money, usually in the form of U.S. Agency for International Development funds, from going to international family planning groups that either offer abortions or provide information, counseling or referrals about abortion. It is also known as the "global gag rule," because it prohibits taxpayer funding for groups that lobby to legalize abortion or promote it as a family planning method.
The Democratic official and senior U.S. official who disclosed the plans did so on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to pre-empt Obama's announcement.
Obama was expected to sign the executive order at a low-key event, one day after the 36th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion.
The move was not a surprise as both Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who will oversee foreign aid, had promised to do away with the gag rule during the presidential campaign. Clinton is to visit the U.S. Agency for International Development, through which much U.S. foreign aid is disbursed, later on Friday.
Obama has spent his first days in office systematically signing executive orders reversing Bush administration policies on issues ranging from foreign policy to government operations. But, save for ending the ban, Obama has largely refrained from wading into ideological issues, perhaps to avoid being tagged a traditional partisan from the outset after his campaign promises to change "business as usual" in the often partisan-gridlocked capital.
Rather, Obama has chosen to focus initially on issues in which there is consensus across the political spectrum and support from the public, such as closing the prison camp for suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to making government documents more accessible.
In a move related to the lifting of the abortion ban, Obama also is expected to restore funding to the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) at his earliest opportunity, probably in the next budget. Both he and Clinton made this a campaign issue.
The Bush administration had barred U.S. money from going to the fund, contending that work in China supported a Chinese family planning policy of coercive abortion and involuntary sterilization. UNFPA has vehemently denied that it does.
Organizations that had pressed Obama to make the abortion-ban change were jubilant.
"Women's health has been severely impacted by the cutoff of assistance. President Obama's actions will help reduce the number of unintended pregnancies, abortions and women dying from high-risk pregnancies because they don't have access to family planning," said Tod Preston, a spokesman for Population Action International, an advocacy group.
Anti-abortion groups criticized the move.
"President Obama not long ago told the American people that he would support policies to reduce abortions, but today he is effectively guaranteeing more abortions by funding groups that promote abortion as a method of population control," said Douglas Johnson, legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee.
So far I am pretty happy with what Obama has done. Where are you haters now?
You expect me to be happy that the President will now be spending my tax dollars on providing services that I find morally reprehensible to people in other countries?
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So far I am pretty happy with what Obama has done. Where are you haters now?
So your happy he is using our money to help other countries have abortions? I may be a lil biased since i want to Ban abortions all together but i thought we needed money? O well guess not since we are giving it away to other countries.
If your happy with what he has done so far then so am i because i will be a lamb just like you sir.
were you happy that the government was spending already millions of a UBER fail program about abstinence?
the topic here is womens choice and abortion education anyways. UNFPA is funded and part of the United Nations, and this is just unblocking that they get us aid funding. They dont only perform abortions.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wikipedia
UNFPA is the world's largest international source of funding for population and reproductive health programs. The Fund works with governments and non-governmental organizations in over 140 countries with the support of the international community, supporting programs that help women, men and young people:
plan their families and avoid unwanted pregnancies
undergo pregnancy and childbirth safely
avoid sexually transmitted infections
combat violence against women
promote the equality of women
According to UNFPA these elements promote the right of "reproductive health", that is physical, mental, and social health in matters related to reproduction and the reproductive system.
You expect me to be happy that the President will now be spending my tax dollars on providing services that I find morally reprehensible to people in other countries?
This money doesn't neccesarily go to abortions, it allows us to help out other organizations even if they happen to support abortions. We were helping international family planning agencies anyway, we were simply discriminating against which ones to help based on their beliefs. If you want to complain about where our tax dollars go there are better things to complain about.
...you'd be surprised with the indecent amounts of taxpayer dollars that are issued to countries that even HATE us, for the silliest "reasons"!!!
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"Politically correct is NOT synonymous with morally correct."
By the way, the second we started teaching sex ed in schools single-motherhood rose exponentially. That worked out nice, right?
So you would rather we not teach them about a subject in an adult, rational manner, and let them learn from watching the new Beverly Hills and whatever their friends are doing on the street?
Nope, they're supposed to be out of our schools all together.
By the way, the second we started teaching sex ed in schools single-motherhood rose exponentially. That worked out nice, right?
Yeah, I'm sure those classes taught kids how to finally stick it in the right spot and knock chicks up.
The only reason sex ed is taught in schools is because there are so many parents who won't teach their kids about sex since it makes them feel uncomfortable.
I wish there wasn't a reason to even bring this into public school but unfortunately if the parents won't teach their kids I guess the state will.
Kids getting pregnant is a failure of the parents, not of the school.
So your happy he is using our money to help other countries have abortions? I may be a lil biased since i want to Ban abortions all together but i thought we needed money? O well guess not since we are giving it away to other countries.
If your happy with what he has done so far then so am i because i will be a lamb just like you sir.
USA<World we got
Tax payers are not specifically funding abortions. In the past (as I understand it) a health clinic/women's clinic was ineligible to receive funding if they perform so much as 1 abortion a year. Even if 99.99% they did routine vaccines and health care - the fact that they presented abortion as an option disqualified them from aid that could save lives and care for children.
Tax payers are not specifically funding abortions. In the past (as I understand it) a health clinic/women's clinic was ineligible to receive funding if they perform so much as 1 abortion a year. Even if 99.99% they did routine vaccines and health care - the fact that they presented abortion as an option disqualified them from aid that could save lives and care for children.
Absolutely correct. Even if the clinic did zero abortions per year, but merely mentioned it as a possible option, they were disqualified from any funding altogether.
Obama to lift ban on U.S.-funded abortions abroad
