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Cristina Page
Author
Anti-abortion movement's campaigns against contraception and sex anti
How the Pro-Choice Movement Saved America: Freedom, Politics and the War on Sex
Eleanor Smeal
President
Women's rights, women's issues, for women's equality
The Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF)
Katherine Spillar
Executive Vice President
Women's rights, the Campaign to Stop Gender Apartheid in Afghanistan, reproductive rights, pro-choice, civil liberties, economics, national leader in struggle to counter the effects of extremist anti-abortion groups that target women's reproductive health clinics
Majority Foundation
Kim Gandy
President
Women's rights, Feminism, Reproductive Rights, Supreme Court Appointments, Women in the Workplace, Racial Diversity, Equal Marriage, Women's Health
National Organization for Women (NOW)
Marcia Greenberger
Co-President
Women and law, women's rights, education and health
National Women's Law Center
Mary Jane Gallagher
President & CEO
Women's health and family planning, all people deserve access to services which will help them act responsibly, stay healthy and plan for strong families
National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association
Silvia Henriquez
Executive Director
Reproductive Justice for Latinas, reproductive rights and health issues for Latinas, reproductive health access for women of color, Judicial nominations
National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health
Susan Cohen
Director of Government Affairs
Preventing unintended pregnancy, government policies and their affect on reproductive health rights
Guttmacher Institute

Obama Rescinds Global Gag Rule

President Restores UNFPA Funding
Issue Area:


Obama Rescinds Global Gag Rule

President Barack Obama today issued an executive order reversing the global gag rule, paving the way for restored U.S. funding that provides life-saving family planning services. The President also announced his commitment for a restored partnership with UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, reversing a Bush administration policy which cut off funding.

The global gag rule, or the �Mexico City policy,� is a U.S. policy that requires foreign non-governmental organizations to agree they will not �perform or promote abortion� in exchange for family planning assistance from the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Specifically, they may not use their own non-US funds to provide information on request to pregnant women about the option of legal abortion, provide legal abortion services or engage in any abortion-related public policy debates.

The reproductive health community believes that the rule harms women by preventing health clinics from providing them life-saving information on all available options and has forced some service providers in underserved areas to close. The policy, they argue, would be an unconstitutional abuse of free speech if applied in the United States.

The policy, named for the conference at which it was drafted in 1984, was first instituted by President Ronald Reagan in 1984; rescinded by President Clinton on Jan. 22, 1993; then reinstituted by President George W. Bush on Jan. 22, 2001.

How have the last 8 years under the Global Gag Rule affected women�s health around the world? What will it mean for women now that it has been rescinded? How does U.S. aid help women around the world?