While ICE raids cast a shadow on the themes of hope and change, President Elect Obama has begun to make a list of Bush initiatives he wants to overturn once he takes his place inside the Oval Office. Among them is what is known as the Global Gag Rule.

The new president is also expected to lift a so-called global gag rule barring international family planning groups that receive U.S. aid from counseling women about the availability of abortion, even in countries where the procedure is legal, said Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. When Bill Clinton took office in 1993, he rescinded the Reagan-era regulation, known as the Mexico City policy, but Bush reimposed it.

“We have been communicating with his transition staff” almost daily, Richards said. “We expect to see a real change.”

Interesting how the regulation was once known as the Mexico City Policy, revealing how third world women and women of color are the ones most impacted by the so-called global policy.

Via / Feministe