For women and their reproductive rights, President Barack Obama’s inauguration couldn’t have come soon enough. As today is the 36th anniversary of the landmark Roe v. Wade U.S. Supreme Court decision, we decided to investigate just how thankful those who believe in a woman’s right to choose should be for the recent regime change.
True to far-right-wing form, George Bush was always staunchly pro-life. Before his return to private citizenry, he proposed a health-care regulation to establish a “right of conscience,” ostensibly allowing medical workers to refuse to participate in any practice to which they object on moral grounds. But the regulation’s vague wording would allow providers to refuse any treatment they find objectionable, such as contraception and family planning. It would prevent hospitals, clinics and drugstores from requiring employees who have religious or moral objections to “assist in the performance of any part of a health service program or research activity” financed by the Department of Health and Human Services. The regulation would make it dangerously easy for any health care provider to refuse a woman any reproductive health treatment to which she has a right. Thirteen state attorneys general say the regulation “completely obliterates the rights of patients to legal and medically necessary health care services.”
In 2001, Bush also reinstated the “Mexico City Policy,” commonly referred to by critics as the “global gag rule,” which prohibits the United States from funding family planning groups in other countries that promote abortion or provide information, counseling or referrals about abortion services. It also “bans any organization receiving family planning funds from the U.S. Agency for International Development from offering abortions or abortion counseling,” according to a December article on CNN.com.
Let’s not forget Bush’s support for abstinence-only sex education in schools, either. No one is pro-abortion – one thing both sides of the aisle can agree on is that it would be better if abortions simply weren’t necessary. However, basing educational policies on puritanical values that are as outdated as they are unrealistic is no way to accomplish this, and has been shown time and again to be ineffective.
Thankfully, Obama supports a woman’s right to choose, and many expect him to reverse several Bush-era abortion regulations soon into his time in office.
“Women should make the decision in consultation with their priests or pastor, their doctor, their family members and in consultation with their beliefs,” Obama said in August. First up is the “Mexico City Policy,” which some say Obama is planning to do away with within his first week in office. (President Bill Clinton hastily overturned the same regulation after his 1993 inauguration.) He is expected to restore federal funding to the United Nations Population Fund, and officials in his administration have begun considering how, as well as how soon, to undo the “right of conscience” regulation. Obama has also said we should attempt to avoid unwanted pregnancies by providing appropriate and comprehensive education to our youth.
Obama and his administration are also weighing decisions such as whether to cut funding for sexual abstinence programs and increase funding for comprehensive sex education programs that include discussion of birth control, whether to overturn a regulation that makes fetuses eligible for health care coverage under the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and whether to lower the cost of birth control at college health clinics.
Perhaps most significant, and certainly most appropriate, given today’s date, is Obama’s statement that he will sign the “Freedom of Choice Act.” The bill will write Roe v. Wade and its protections into law and eliminate many abortion restrictions the court has allowed over the years, such as parental notification or consent laws.
Opponents are preparing to defend the past administration’s pro-life policies, and some say immediate sweeping changes may be unwise, or even impossible due to lack of support on both sides. But abortion-rights groups are confident that Obama will make good on his pledge to change the tone of the abortion debate. They, and the Emerald editorial board, believe the American people are ready to do away with ideology-based politics and focus on practicality and solving problems.
As Obama begins his presidency, we are optimistic that the attack mounted during the past eight years on women’s reproductive rights will be brought to a halt, and much of the damage inflicted by the Bush administration will be repaired.
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