Think Progress

Obama to overturn global gag rule ‘in one of his first acts.’

“In one of his first acts as president, Barack Obama is planning to lift a rule” that bars federal money from going to international family planning groups that counsel women on abortion or perform the procedure. The so-called “global gag rule” (also referred to as the “Mexico City policy”) was created by the Reagan administration, then overturned by President Clinton, and was later re-instituted by President Bush as his first act in office.



33 Responses to “Obama to overturn global gag rule ‘in one of his first acts.’”

  1. RantingTommy says:

    The first step to bringing back sanity to America

    ———————————————
    ‘ere – Atlanta’s Progressive Jazz
    (yes that’s me on the piano)
    Find us at ReverbNation.com/ere
    ———————————————



  2. PatrioticLiberalChristian says:

    I know I’ve been gagging since Bush was (s)elected.


  3. markusmarkus says:

    One down, many, many more to go.


  4. southrnbelle says:

    YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


  5. Wayne A. Schneider says:

    How did the gag rule not violate the First Amendment? And how could a president create a law like that? Ever notice it’s Republican presidents who want to prevent people from talking about certain subjects, yet they claim to love freedom?


  6. Uncle Ho says:

    THE DAY is finally here!

    Hello Barack, Goodbye Bush.


  7. pax says:

    YES YES YES!
    You are a breath of fresh air!


  8. Allamr18 says:

    you know what i despise about this entire abortion issue? its old men making policies based of a book written by old men on how everyone should live.abortion is always looked at from the prism of the female doesnt want to commit but id imagine that if men could get pregnant these same men calling everyone baby killers would be silent. What is it with republicans not wanting people to have all the information out there? they want you to only have the parts they like and support.


  9. Marie says:

    Bushie’s first act will be overturned by
    Obama’s first act = fitting.
    And this is appropriate for people around the world.


  10. Marie says:

    I don’t know who to credit for this, but it seems appropriate here.

    Dear World:

    We, the United States of America, your top quality supplier of the ideals of liberty and democracy, would like to apologize for our 2001-2008 interruption in service. The technical fault that led to this eight-year service outage has been located, and the software responsible was replaced November 4, 2008.. Early tests of the newly installed program indicate that we are now operating correctly, and we expect it to be fully functional on January 20, 2009. We apologize for any inconvenience caused by the outage. We look forward to resuming full service and hope to improve in years to come. We thank you for your patience and understanding.

    Sincerely,

    THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA


  11. TheWatcher says:

    How did the gag rule not violate the First Amendment? And how could a president create a law like that?

    It doesn’t. It regulates how federal tax moneys will be spent. Any doctor or nurse or health care professional can stand outside the federal funded clinic and exercise their freedom of speech.


  12. unbelievable says:

    I can’t believe it’s today. We’ve all worked so hard for this. Enjoy!

    And congratulations for taking back our Democracy!

    Power to the people!


  13. katy says:

    just saw this headline at the googlenews page:

    Inauguration Insider: Berlin, Eat Your Heart Out FOXNews

    what IS it with those people?

    i recall a LOT of ridicule by fox because of those crowds in berlin…


  14. Wayne says:

    Obama to overturn global gag rule ‘in one of his first acts.’

    How about releasing the gag order on Sibel Edmonds next?


  15. DNFP says:

  16. katy says:

    here’s what i read in my daily this morning (yesterday’s paper):

    WELCOME TO TOWN, PRESIDENT OBAMA

    By Cal Thomas
    Tribune Media Services

    Welcome to Washington, soon to be “Mr. President.” I know you’ve been here before for a short time as senator, but this is different. This is The Big Time, the world stage and you are the leading man.

    You campaigned on change and won the election. That was the easy part. Every new administration comes to town thinking it will be better than the one before it, more honest, more ethical, more competent. But people and events have a way of frustrating the loftiest goals. All of your good intentions notwithstanding, no one person can change a city built on a swamp, a city that has taken on many of a swamp’s characteristics.

    Even conservatives like me want you to succeed, so long as you don’t pursue a strictly left-wing agenda. Would you like to disarm the social conservatives? Instead of signing an executive order that strikes down what few restrictions remain on abortion, start with your declared intention to make abortion rare. Ask for legislation that requires pregnant, abortion-minded women to receive full disclosure, including sonograms, so that their choice will be fully informed. Elevate the visibility of the pregnancy help centers around the country that quietly and without charge assist women before and after childbirth. They even help women who have chosen to have abortions. You will create a lot of goodwill among those who otherwise might oppose you.
    [...]
    http://www.calthomas.com/index.php?news=2489

    interesting – what progs consider “rare” includes preventing pregnancy in the first place…
    it’s like that doesn’t even occur to the regressives…


  17. hussein toasterhead says:

    TheWatcher Says:

    It doesn’t. It regulates how federal tax moneys will be spent. Any doctor or nurse or health care professional can stand outside the federal funded clinic and exercise their freedom of speech.

    January 20th, 2009 at 9:13 am
    _________

    Close, but not quite. It doesn’t violate the first amendment, but it does stifle innovation for the sake of pandering. It regulates which international organizations can receive foreign aid money. If any part of their service involves abortion, they were ineligible to receive this money under any circumstances.

    So, for example, a group such as Planned Parenthood International could never receive a USAID grant under the Mexico City policy. Even if they had a wildly innovative and successful AIDS-prevention program that had nothing to do with abortion – they couldn’t receive funding to scale up this AIDS program, because one part of their organization performs abortions.


  18. Wayne A. Schneider says:

    Thanks, hussein toasterhead,

    The effect, then, is that no organization that receives federal funds can even discuss the fact that abortion exists, or they lose those funds. To me, that smells of suppression of speech. But I suppose there’s some technical argument that gets around this, or else Planned Parenthood and the ACLU could have stopped it on those grounds long ago.


  19. Pernell says:

    I knew we were in for a rough ride when Bush said this. Plainly not a man who knew where he was or what he was doing.

    From Salon:

    Then there were his comments at a White House meeting, accidentally piped into the press room on Jan. 31, and reported by the Washington Post, when Bush referred to his executive order restoring a ban on U.S. aid to overseas groups that offer abortion services and abortion counseling (known as “the Mexico City” policy since it was introduced by President Reagan there in 1984) as “the money from Mexico, you know, that thing, the executive order I signed about Mexico City.”


  20. TheWatcher says:

    Toasterhead and Wayne: I’m not defending the practice just pointing out you can’t use freedom speech as an argument, and by the way our Constitution doesn’t promise freedom of speech outside of the USA. I think this is terrific news. It sends a message.


  21. curious says:

    One of Bush’s first act was to send a woman to the UN who did not believe in sex education or condoms. There is a huge refugee population consisting of women in those camps. The incidents of rape is extremely high. And she stopped the practice of giving these women the pill or condoms so they would not have the child of rape.

    Reagan cut the funds for it first. But Bush stopped allowing the US to help protect these women at all. These despicable people that Bush represents or promotes are the death knell of all humanity or common sense.

    I wonder just how anxious Bush would be to see one of his own daughters forced to bear the child of rape. Does he imagine these women can “just say no?”


  22. Stickboy97 says:

    Here we go, and its gonna start first thing. That jacka$$ Yobama giving our great country away!

    This is just the beginning, you bed wetting liberls need to get ready for one hell of a rough ride with this guy.


  23. wiley says:

    What the hell are you talking about Stickboy?

    The end of a useless and patronizing policy is a good thing.


  24. alan8 says:

    But that’s what any SANE person would do. Bush has really lowered our expectations.

    Let’s see Obama do something that threatens corporate profits, like single-payer health care, or slashing the bloated military budget. Or prosecute the Bush Administration war criminals.

    Then I’d be impressed.


  25. EugeneDebs says:

    Stickboy97 Says:

    Jeez you MORONS are not only unbelievably stupid you have no sense of irony whatsoever. After the last 8 years of unmitigeted incompetence lying and disaster you are PREDICTING bad things about Obama????? Are you FU@#ING kiddint me? Please stop voting and DO NOT BREED. YOu are too stupid to live. Why not leave the oxygen for higher lifeforms to use


  26. JustKevin says:

    Are you people serious? Is there not a better way to control the world population? Why the hell should we fund the killing of unwanted children. Maybe the money would be better spent to fund rendering impotent those people who cannot be sexually responsible. All the education in the world will not keep people who screw like monkeys from breeding or spreading disease.

    Is that not what this is all about – population control?

    To quote a song – “All the stupid people are breeding, the cretins cloning and feeding…”

    And this whole subject leads to a welfare debate – should we take care of the poor or make sure they don’t breed by paying for their abortions?

    What a dumb discussion…


  27. EugeneDebs says:

    JustKevin Says:

    I guess its a good thing for you the stupid people ARE breeding or YOU would never have arrived. Do the world a favor and DONT breed yourself because the world has enough stupid in it just from YOU. Are you morons for real? You take stupid to all new levels. You are wasting oxygen that brains capable of higher brain function could be using.


  28. ElBruce says:

    So whenever there’s a Republican in the White House, global family planning clinics have to refuse to perform abortions or lose all funding even for education or prevention. Whenever there’s a Democrat in the White House, people worldwide get access to family planning. Add that to the pile of good reasons to make sure that no Republican ever gets voted into anything, ever again.

    .

    Stickboy97 Says:

    Here we go, and its gonna start first thing. That jacka$$ Yobama giving our great country away!

    Well, we tried to auction off Tennessee, but couldn’t find a buyer. So I guess we’re just stuck with it all.

    .

    JustKevin Says:

    Are you people serious? Is there not a better way to control the world population? Why the hell should we fund the killing of unwanted children.

    Calm down, wingnut. Nobody’s killing any children. That’s a lie.

    .

    JustKevin Says:

    Maybe the money would be better spent to fund rendering impotent those people who cannot be sexually responsible.

    Forced sterilization, huh? You’re calling for a global eugenics program now. Good like with that.

    .

    JustKevin Says:

    All the education in the world will not keep people who screw like monkeys from breeding or spreading disease.

    Monkeys? Really? You’re gonna call all third world people monkeys and stand by that? Because you won’t get very far with that.

    And are you saying that education doesn’t work? How’s ignorance been working for ya?

    .

    JustKevin Says:

    And this whole subject leads to a welfare debate – should we take care of the poor or make sure they don’t breed by paying for their abortions?

    There’s a third option, but it’s a secret only liberals konw.


  29. ElBruce says:

    alan8 Says:

    But that’s what any SANE person would do. Bush has really lowered our expectations.

    Obama’s only been President 1/2 a day, dude.


  30. Helen Rainier says:

    #29 — Kevin, you’re correct — let’s just render those people who breed irresponsibly impotent. Just to save money and make things a lot easier, we can start by clipping all the young boys when they reach puberty so they are not able to impregnate women. Ya never know, it may just cut down on incidents of rape and domestic violence, too.

    Forced sterilization of all the men in the world would be less expensive than paying for abortions and birth control methods for women.


  31. upright left says:

    ElBruce Says:

    JustKevin Says:
    Are you people serious? Is there not a better way to control the world population? Why the hell should we fund the killing of unwanted children.

    Calm down, wingnut. Nobody’s killing any children.

    Of course they are.


  32. youtube says:

    Just to save money and make things a lot easier, sohbetwe can start by clipping all the young boys when Bedava mp3 indirthey reach puberty so they are not able to impregnate women.cetWhenever there’s a Democrat in the White House, people worldwide get access to family planning.



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