Obama lifts restrictions on abortion funding

By Jeff Mason and Deborah Charles

WASHINGTON (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.

"For the past eight years, (the restrictions) have undermined efforts to promote safe and effective voluntary family planning in developing countries," Obama said in a statement.

"It is right for us to rescind this policy and restore critical efforts to protect and empower women and promote global economic development."

In contrast to his executive order to close the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which he signed in a ceremony before journalists, the president issued this order quietly and the White House released a statement at 7 p.m. EST/2400 GMT.

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.

Critics call it the "gag rule" because it cuts funds to groups that advocate lifting abortion restrictions, which critics say means it blocks free speech. They say it reduced healthcare for some of the world's poorest women.