Gag Rule is Out, UNFPA Funding In, Maloney Says

Washington, November 12 – The Barack Obama administration will move quickly in January to reverse several longstanding restrictions on U.S. international family planning assistance, a leading congressional women’s rights advocate said today.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), appearing at the launch of the 2008 State of World Population report from UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, told an audience of activists and journalists that Obama would change the Washington culture surrounding reproductive health issues.

“UNFPA will be funded and the gag rule will be reversed,” she promised, to loud applause. The Bush administration has for eight years withheld funds that Congress appropriated for UNFPA, which supports family planning and safe motherhood practices worldwide. The gag rule, also known as the Mexico City policy, is a Reagan-era prohibition on funding for any group overseas that discusses abortion or advocates abortion policy changes.

Maloney assured her audience that the Obama administration will welcome the UNFPA report, which advocates incorporating cultural sensitivity into development policy and practices, and will take its recommendations to heart. “He knows personally how critical it is to work within a culture to bring about change,” she said. “He has just done a beautiful job on that himself.”

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