BARACK Obama yesterday lifted restrictions on US government funding for groups that provide abortion services or counselling abroad, reversing a policy of his predecessor as president, George Bush.
The decision is a victory for advocates of abortion rights on an issue that in recent years has become a tit-for-tat policy change each time the White House shifts from one party to the other.
When the ban was in place, no US government funding f
or family planning services could be given to clinics or groups that offer abortion services or counselling in other countries.
It has been called the Mexico City Policy because it was unveiled at a United Nations conference there in 1984 and became one of the centrepiece social policies of the conservative administration of the Republican president Ronald Reagan.
Critics call it the "gag rule" because it also cuts funds to groups that advocate or lobby for the lifting of abortion restrictions, so they say it infringes on free speech. They also say it has reduced healthcare for some of the world's poorest women.
Bill Clinton, a Democrat, rescinded the rule when he took office as president in January 1993, and his successor, George Bush, a Republican, reinstated it in 2001.
Anti-abortion activists criticised the move to lift the ban on funding.
But critics of the funding ban say the anti-abortion restrictions have resulted in huge drops for funding worldwide to organisations that provide family planning services. They say many women are deprived of contraception and other health services in poor countries, leading to back-alley abortions and deaths.
