Planned Parenthood | Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota Action Fund

November 10, 2008 1:36:01

 

 

by Karina
Web Editor
Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota Action Fund

It there was any doubt in your mind about the importance having a pro-choice president, may I submit this to you:

Transition advisers to President-elect Barack Obama have compiled a list of about 200 Bush administration actions and executive orders that could be swiftly undone to reverse White House policies on climate change, stem cell research, reproductive rights and other issues…


…The new president is also expected to lift a so-called global gag rule barring international family planning groups that receive U.S. aid from counseling women about the availability of abortion, even in countries where the procedure is legal, said Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. When Bill Clinton took office in 1993, he rescinded the Reagan-era regulation, known as the Mexico City policy, but Bush reimposed it.

As it stands currently under President Bush, international family planning organizations can choose to cease discussing abortion as an option and therefore continue to receive aid to do other family planning work OR continue discussing abortion and receive zero dollars to provide important preventative work.

Consider this: 190 women worldwide will experience an unintended pregnancy every minute. Also consider the fact that about 46 million abortions are performed worldwide annually—nearly half are unsafe. Every hour, eight women will die as a result of an unsafe abortion.

Getting rid of the Global Gag Rule is a big deal— it means saving women’s lives and funding important work that will help reduce the rate of unintended pregnancies and STIS.

Kudos to President-elect Obama for already planning to repeal this atrocious, ideological, policy.

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