Obama Intends to Lift Family-Planning 'Gag Rule'

Move Would Restore Funds to International Groups Involved With Abortion; Timing Shows Sensitivity to Foes of Roe v. Wade
Wall Street Journal

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama will issue an order restoring U.S. funding for international family-planning groups involved with abortion. But he chose not to do so on Thursday, the anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

President Obama was breaking with the tradition set by his recent predecessors to make an abortion-related order on the anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling, another example of his attempt to support liberal policies he believes in while trying to defuse emotional political debates.

Abortion-rights backers and opponents faced off in Washington Thursday. President Obama will wait to announce a restoration of funds for overseas groups involved in abortion until after the anniversary of Roe v. Wade.
Bill Clinton and George W. Bush both used Jan. 22, the anniversary of the Supreme Court decision guaranteeing legal abortion, to change U.S. policy toward organizations involved with family-planning and abortion.

Under the original policy, established by President Ronald Reagan in 1984, U.S. funds for contraception and other family-planning services could not go to organizations that advocate, counsel or offer abortion. Opponents call it the "global gag rule." Mr. Clinton, a Democrat, lifted that restriction when be became president in 1993, and then the Republican Mr. Bush changed it back in 2001.

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