By Suzanne Malveaux
CNN White House Correspondent
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President-elect Barack Obama is considering issuing an executive order to reverse a controversial Bush administration abortion policy in his first week in office, three Democratic sources said Monday.
Obama's second full day as president falls on the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion in the United States.
The sources said Obama may use the occasion to reverse the "Mexico City policy" reinstated in 2001 by Bush that prohibits U.S. money from funding international family planning groups that promote abortion or provide information, counseling or referrals about abortion services. It bans any organization receiving family planning funds from the U.S. Agency for International Development from offering abortions or abortion counseling.
The "Mexico City policy," commonly referred to by critics as "the global gag rule," was devised by President Ronald Reagan in 1984 at a population conference in Mexico City.
President Bill Clinton lifted the ban in January 1993 as one of his first acts as president, but President George W. Bush reinstated it in his first executive order on January 22, 2001, the 28th anniversary of Roe v. Wade.
At the time, critics -- including Planned Parenthood -- called the move a "legislative ambush."
Bush defended the action, saying then: "It is my conviction that taxpayer funds should not be used to pay for abortion or actively promote abortion."
3 comments:
It is my conviction that taxpayer funds should not be used to pay for abstinence-only sex education.
This all gets a trifle ridiculous. Every time we get a right winger in office the Mexico city policy is going to resurface, and as soon as we get a liberal into office it will be repealed. We need some type of balance; a compromise so we don't have a radical overhaul in abortion policy every 4-8 years. However food for thought; where is the constitutionality in prohibiting public funds to educate the masses as far as abortion or abstinence alternatives go ? The driving force behind the prohibition of abortion education is based completely on moral ideals directly derived form the Christian faith, this is an obvious lack of separation between church and state and is one more step in the ever growing encroachment on the freedoms of non-Christian Americans-which from my codename you may gather I do not approve of
yours truly V
No where in the Constitution is the prohibition of publicly funding groups that promote or provide information on abortion, and that is why it is an executive order. The president gets to make certain decisions like that one, so it will change whenever the party of the president changes. As of now, there is not way to change this. I'm not saying I don't think money should go to organizations like Planned Parenthood, because I think abstinence-only education doesn't work, and that women should be able to get information and have abortions safely. But this policy will most likely always be changed based on the beliefs of the president.
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