WASHINGTON — Stepping quickly into an abortion debate he largely avoided as a candidate, President Obama on Friday overturned a controversial ban on U.S. support to international aid groups that provide abortion services around the world.
Reversing the so-called global gag rule was a top priority of abortion rights supporters, who have long criticized the regulation as imperiling women's health, particularly in developing nations.
The new president cast his decision as a breakthrough in the decades-long debate over the federal government's involvement in family planning.
"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," Obama said in a statement announcing his action. "It is time that we end the politicization of this issue.
"I have directed my staff to reach out to those on all sides of this issue to achieve the goal of reducing unintended pregnancies," he said. "They will also work to promote safe motherhood, reduce maternal and infant mortality rates and increase educational and economic opportunities for women and girls."
Obama also announced he would release federal funding for the United Nations Population Fund as soon as Congress makes it available, ensuring renewed U.S. support for the U.N. family planning agency.
Abortion opponents immediately condemned the moves, criticizing them as the first part of what one called Obama's "sweeping abortion agenda."
President Reagan instituted the rule, also known as the "Mexico City policy," in 1984, stating that the U.S. government would not contribute to groups that "perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning in other nations."
The result, critics said, was that nongovernmental organizations working in the developing world could not refer women to safe abortion providers or even conduct family planning education campaigns that discussed the procedure.
President Clinton rescinded the rule shortly after taking office in 1993. Eight years later, President Bush reinstituted it, saying that taxpayer funds should not be used to promote abortions.
Obama worked to defuse abortion as a political issue during the presidential campaign, stressing his commitment to reducing the number of abortions as he maintained his commitment to protecting abortion rights.
