Reverse Bush's Assaults on Reproductive Rights

With the election of Barack Obama, women around the world can look forward to an end to the Bush administration's relentless assault on women's reproductive health and rights. President-elect Obama must work toward a nation and world in which all women can decide whether and when to have children, without coercion or discrimination, and have access to quality reproductive health care. To reduce high rates of unintended pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections and maternal mortality, policy must be guided by human rights principles and grounded in science, not ideology.

The first steps? Strike funding for abstinence-only sex education and appoint federal agency directors who respect scientific data. Support reproductive rights at the U.N. and in U.S. foreign assistance programs. Repeal the Global Gag Rule and restore funding to the United Nations Population Fund.

Nancy Northup is President of the Center for Reproductive Rights