As Diane Amann reported here on January 29th, President Barack Obama restored U.S. funding for international organizations whose health care activities include counseling about, advocating for or performing abortions.Upon rescinding the Mexico City Policy, Obama issued a statement observing:
It is clear that the provisions of the Mexico City Policy are unnecessarily broad and unwarranted under the current law, and for the past eight years, they have undermined efforts to promote safe and effective voluntary family planning in developing countries. It is right for us to rescind this policy and restore critical efforts to promote safe and effective voluntary family planning in developing countries.
(read the statement here).
As Amann points out, the decision was celebrated by family planning organizations and decried by abortion opponents. What are activists saying on the ground in countries that have been hurt by the U.S.’s restrictive funding policy? New Vision, a Kampala-based newspaper, reports:
Thomas Mega, the Uganda Country Director for Marie Stopes International, observes: “Our hope is that USAID can ultimately release the funds they otherwise held back to enable us [to] procure contraceptives to enable Ugandan women [to] be in charge of their sexual and reproductive health.”“Elly Mugumya, the Executive Director of Reproductive Health Uganda, says that reversal of the gag rule could not have come at a better time. Mugumya, whose organization could not access USAID funds, says Obama’s announcement will go a long way in reducing maternal deaths and re-igniting the debate on safe abortion..” Mugumya observes, “You had to disguise or miss out on the funding, consequently suffocating public information and family planning choices because providing any information on abortion was seen in the wrong light. We pretended that abortion does not take place, yet it kills 13 – 16 % of mothers every year.”
The mood on the ground in Uganda appears to be quite optimistic. In a classic example of the “two steps forward, one step back” phenomenon, Obama’s important decision comes at a time when U.S. Congressional members modified the economic stimulus package to remove support for access to contraceptives in the U.S. According to Human Rights Watch,
the provisions, which would have allowed states to expand access to contraceptives under Medicaid, were taken out after protests from some congressional members.
Those Members of Congress supported removal of the provisions despite a 2007 Congressional Budget Office analysis that estimated that similar funding for contraceptives
would save $200 million over five years, including money Medicaid would otherwise have spent on services related to unintended pregnancies.
