End the gag-rule games

BY A QUIRK of the calendar, a new president's inauguration always coincides with the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision of Jan. 22, 1973, which legalized abortion. Sadly, Democratic and Republican presidents alike have used that anniversary to send an early signal to their supporters on either side of the divisive issue. Forgotten in the political tug-of-war are millions of poor women overseas who desperately need decent healthcare and better lives.

The matter that has ping-ponged between presidential administrations is the so-called global gag rule, which denies US funding to any women's health clinic that offers abortion services or counseling, even in countries where abortion is legal. President Reagan first pushed the policy at a summit on world population issues in 1984, and his successor, George H. W. Bush, continued it even though Bush had once been a supporter of family planning.

When President Clinton was elected, he repealed the policy during his first days in office. And then George W. Bush reinstated the ban as his first official act, which coincided with the 28th anniversary of Roe.

Meanwhile, women in poor countries are dying in childbirth, or of botched abortions, because foreign aid is held hostage to domestic politics.

Of course Barack Obama should lift the odious gag order as soon as possible. But the world needs a new way of looking at women's health that goes beyond abortion. The clinics that lose funding also provide birth control, prenatal care, and training for midwives to improve pregnancy outcomes and infant mortality rates. Such services, along with education and economic opportunity, are the best way to prevent unwanted pregnancies - and abortion - in the first place.