President Barack Obama has lifted a ban on US funding for groups that provide abortion services abroad, officials say. The move will reverse a policy of his predecessor, George W Bush, BBC online writes Friday.
The policy, also known as the “global gag rule”, has stopped US government money going to groups that perform or provide information about abortion. Health groups say they have been badly hit. The US is one of the key backers of family planning programmes globally.
Hundreds of organisations working in the worlds poorest nations – places where maternal mortality and infant death are high – have faced a tough choice: either sign the gag rule and be silenced on abortion, or refuse and lose millions of dollars in US aid.
A spokesman for the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) said that under the Bush administration, the organisation had lost more than 100 million US dollar in funding, affecting its services across 176 countries.
– It has had a massive impact on delivery of services of family planning across the globe, but in particular in Africa, said Paul Bell of the IPPF.
However some conservative groups in the US say taxpayers money should not be used to pay for abortion or its promotion.
Former President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, repealed the policy when he took office in 1993 and George W Bush reinstated it in 2001. The ruling is also known as the Mexico City Policy, because it was first introduced at a UN conference there in 1984 by former Republican President Ronald Reagan.
Se også telegrammet www.u-landsnyt.dk/indhold.asp?ID=17341&mode=Nyhed
DOKUMENT:
President Barack Obama Friday issued an executive order reversing the global gag rule, paving the way for restored US funding for international non-governmental organizations that provide life-saving family planning services.
Below is President Obamas statement. For additional information, including press releases and statements from numerous organizations applauding the President for repealing the global gag rule, visit www.PLANetWIRE.org
Nicole Tidwell
Senior Program Manager
[email protected]
Communications Consortium Media Center
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THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
_________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release January 23, 2009
Statement of President Barack Obama on Rescinding the Mexico City Policy
“It is clear that the provisions of the Mexico City Policy are unnecessarily broad and unwarranted under current law, and for the past eight years, they have undermined efforts to promote safe and effective voluntary family planning in developing countries. For these reasons, it is right for us to rescind this policy and restore critical efforts to protect and empower women and promote global economic development.
“For too long, international family planning assistance has been used as a political wedge issue, the subject of a back and forth debate that has served only to divide us. I have no desire to continue this stale and fruitless debate.
“It is time that we end the politicization of this issue. In the coming weeks, my Administration will initiate a fresh conversation on family planning, working to find areas of common ground to best meet the needs of women and families at home and around the world.
“I have directed my staff to reach out to those on all sides of this issue to achieve the goal of reducing unintended pregnancies. They will also work to promote safe motherhood, reduce maternal and infant mortality rates and increase educational and economic opportunities for women and girls.
“In addition, I look forward to working with Congress to restore U.S. financial support for the UN Population Fund. By resuming funding to UNFPA, the U.S. will be joining 180 other donor nations working collaboratively to reduce poverty, improve the health of women and children, prevent HIV/AIDS and provide family planning assistance to women in 154 countries,” said President Obama.
Memorandum for the Secretary of State
the Administrator of the United States Agency
for International Development
Subject: Mexico City Policy and Assistance for
Voluntary Population Planning
The Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2151b(f)(1)), prohibits nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that receive Federal funds from using those funds “to pay for the performance of abortions as a method of family planning, or to motivate or coerce any person to practice abortions.”
The August 1984 announcement by President Reagan of what has become known as the “Mexico City Policy” directed the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to expand this limitation and withhold USAID funds from NGOs that use non-USAID funds to engage in a wide range of activities, including providing advice, counseling, or information regarding abortion, or lobbying a foreign government to legalize or make abortion available.
The Mexico City Policy was in effect from 1985 until 1993, when it was rescinded by President Clinton. President George W. Bush reinstated the policy in 2001, implementing it through conditions in USAID grant awards, and subsequently extended the policy to “voluntary population planning” assistance provided by the Department of State.
These excessively broad conditions on grants and assistance awards are unwarranted. Moreover, they have undermined efforts to promote safe and effective voluntary family planning programs in foreign nations.
Accordingly, I hereby revoke the Presidential memorandum of January 22, 2001, for the Administrator of USAID (Restoration of the Mexico City Policy), the Presidential memorandum of March 28, 2001, for the Administrator of USAID (Restoration of the Mexico City Policy), and the Presidential memorandum of August 29, 2003, for the Secretary of State (Assistance for Voluntary Population Planning).
In addition, I direct the Secretary of State and the Administrator of USAID to take the following actions with respect to conditions in voluntary population planning assistance and USAID grants that were imposed pursuant to either the 2001 or 2003 memoranda and that are not required by the Foreign Assistance Act or any other law:
(1) immediately waive such conditions in any current grants, and
(2) notify current grantees, as soon as possible, that these conditions have been waived. I further direct that the Department of State and USAID immediately cease imposing these conditions in any future grants.
This memorandum is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
The Secretary of State is authorized and directed to publish this memorandum in the Federal Register.
BARACK OBAMA
THE WHITE HOUSE, January 23, 2009.
