WASHINGTON, Jan 23 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Friday lifted restrictions on U.S. government funding for groups that provide abortion services or counseling abroad, reversing a policy of his Republican predecessor George W. Bush. The Democratic president's decision was 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 U.S. government funding for family planning services could be given to clinics or groups that offered abortion services or counseling in other countries, even if the funds for those activities came from non-U.S. government sources.
The decision has been called the Mexico City Policy because it was unveiled at a United Nations conference there in 1984 and became one of the centerpiece social positions of the administration of then-President Ronald Reagan, a Republican.
Anti-abortion activists criticized Obama. "When we wake up every morning to a deepening financial crisis, it is an insult to the American people to bail out the abortion industry," said Charmaine Yoest, president of Americans United for Life. "Planned Parenthood is a billion-dollar company and they do not need additional resources to burden the American taxpayer."
The United States spends more than $400 million on overseas family planning assistance each year.
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