WASHINGTON, Jan 23, 2009 (AFP) - President Barack Obama said the eight-year ban he lifted Friday on US funding to family planning groups abroad that counseled abortion was "unnecessarily broad and unwarranted" and had become too politicized an issue.
Shortly after he signed an executive order cancelling the restrictions, on the third full day of his presidency, Obama said in a statement the ban had "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."
The so-called "global gag rule," also known as the Mexico City Policy, cut off US funding to overseas family planning clinics which provide any abortion services whatsoever, from the operation itself to counseling, referrals or post-abortion services.
First introduced by Republican president Ronald Reagan in 1984, it has been repeatedly overturned by Democratic administrations and then reintroduced by the Republicans.
Obama's action overturned the orders of president George W. Bush, who when he came into office in 2001 immediately froze funds to many family planning groups working overseas.
"It is clear that the provisions of the Mexico City Policy are unnecessarily broad and unwarranted under current law," Obama said in his statement.
For too long, he added, the ban "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."
By resuming funding to the UN Population Fund, he said, "the US 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."
Newly sworn-in Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a longtime advocate of women's rights, hailed Obama's repeal of the ban as "a welcomed and important step" at the beginning of his presidency.
"For the past seven years, this policy has made it more difficult for women around the world to gain access to essential information and healthcare services," Clinton said in a statement.
"Rather than limiting women's ability to receive reproductive health services, we should be supporting programs that help women and their partners make decisions to ensure their health and the health of their families."
Clinton said she was looking forward to working with "the NGO (non-governmental organization) community to promote programs and policies that ensure women and girls have full access to health information and services."
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