obama is taking my $

[drew54]

Correct me if I am wrong here, but I do not believe that anymore money is given to them, the clause is that the money we were giving them could not be spent on this, now we take away that clause. Honestly when you give someone money and tell hem not to spend it on this, but if they were going to buy it anyway, have you really not supported their decision already?

[12thMan]

Originally Posted by drew54

Correct me if I am wrong here, but I do not believe that anymore money is given to them, the clause is that the money we were giving them could not be spent on this, now we take away that clause. Honestly when you give someone money and tell hem not to spend it on this, but if they were going to buy it anyway, have you really not supported their decision already?

You're pretty much correct. President Obama isn't starting some "new program" here. This clause was instituted by Ronald Reagan in 1984. That is, NGO's already receiving federal money from the U.S. had to meet certain requirements and were prohibited from using said funding to promote healthcare rights for women. And nearly every Administration thereafter has either overturned the rule or re-instated it, depending on the party.

Furthermore, this isn't and shouldn't be seen as a mechanism to mitigate terrorism or somehow root it out before little terrorists sprout and grow up to inflict harm on Americans. On the contrary, this is --and has always been-- about women's reproductive rights, getting adequate healthcare to women who are pregant and, yes, contraception. Federal funding that has flowed to these countries would be the benefactors, not Bin Ladin's third cousin getting knocked up in the mountains of Afghanistan.

Bottom line, these agencies are simply getting a small piece of the pie that was being sent to their respective countries. There is no new money, no new rules here. And I suspect, when the next Republican administration takes office -- whenever that is -- they'll once again re-instate the clause as originally intended under Reagan.