Saturday, January 24, 2009

Obama, family planning, and foreign aid

By Michael J.W. Stickings

I continue to applaud enthusiastically through the early days of the Obama presidency.

So far, Obama is what many of us expected him to be, and more. He's closing Gitmo and banning torture, for example, and yesterday he reversed another of Bush's more egregious policies, one especially harmful to women:

President Obama struck down a rule Friday that prohibits U.S. money from funding international family-planning clinics that promote abortion or provide counseling or referrals about abortion services.

Obama said in a statement that family planning aid has been used as a "political wedge issue," adding that he had "no desire to continue this stale and fruitless debate."

The policy says any organization receiving U.S. family-planning funds from the U.S. Agency for International Development cannot offer abortions or abortion counseling.

"It is time we end the politicization of this issue," Obama said. "In the coming weeks, my administration will initiate a fresh conversation on family planning, working to find areas of common ground to best meet the needs of women and families at home and around the world."

How nice it is that the theocrats, who do so much damage both at home and abroad, and more to women than to men, are no longer in power.

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posted by Michael J.W. Stickings at 12:02 AM

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7 Comments:

  • Here's a gem of a comment from the NEW Commander Guy/Decider Guy.

    While discussing the stimulus package with top lawmakers in the White House's Roosevelt Room, President Obama shot down a critic with a simple message.

    "I won," he said, according to aides who were briefed on the meeting. "I will trump you on that."

    If Bush had said that, you would have EXPLODED in fury and conspiracies of dictatotship. What about now? A DEAFENING SILENCE!!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 6:24 AM  

  • Please explain, without resorting to the facile "right to choose" discourse, how exporting abortion helps women in 'underdeveloped' regions? Then, as a thought experiment, consider the public debate if, say, Chinese development funds were given to Planned Parenthood for operations in the U.S.?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 10:51 AM  

  • What's so "facile" about the "right to choose"? It's the foundation of a free society, is it not? And, yes, that matters to women around the world, I'm sure.

    By Blogger Michael J.W. Stickings, at 4:51 PM  

  • "you would have EXPLODED in fury and conspiracies of dictatotship [sic]."

    A bit presumptuous to ascribe actions and put words in someone's mouth and argue as though it really happened, n'est ce pas? Presumptuous is of course a polite euphemism for dishonest.

    I would presume that forcing raped women, some with full blown AIDS - there are millions of them - to bear the children of those who murdered their families helps them, or you wouldn't be saying these things. I would assume that birth control would be no help in a starving, disease ridden environment, right? But of course you're the voice of God, aren't you?

    And no, I wouldn't give a damn if Chinese money went into funding Planned Parenthood any more than you would that Saudi money went into the Bush administration.

    By Blogger Capt. Fogg, at 12:02 PM  

  • There 2 Anons, Foggy boy, and we have no idea who the other one is.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 5:31 AM  

  • There are billions actually - Nony old boy.

    By Blogger Capt. Fogg, at 1:12 PM  

  • Sounds like such a worthy cause for all that stimulus money that is supposedly going to jump start OUR economy (eventually) by devaluing our dollar at an alarming rate. I'm so glad to know that we have all this money to fund abortions elsewhere in the world while we are buried in multi-trillion dollar debt.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:25 PM  

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