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Obama signs executive order limiting federal abortion funding

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] US President Barack Obama signed an executive order Wednesday continuing a prohibition on the use of federal funds for abortion except in cases of rape or incest or where a woman's life would be endangered. Some anti-abortion congressional Democrats insisted on the order as a condition for their support of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which Obama signed into law Tuesday. NARAL Pro-Choice America President Nancy Keenan called anti-abortion Democrats' insistence on the executive order "deeply disappointing", saying that women's reproductive rights were being used as a bargaining chip. National Right to Life, meanwhile, called the executive order "meaningless," saying "it changes nothing" and fails "to correct any of the serious pro-abortion provisions in the bill." The passage of the health care reform bill has been extremely controversial. The same day that the bill was signed into law, the attorneys general (AGs) for 13 states filed suit in federal court challenging the constitutionality of the new law. Last week, Idaho Governor CL Otter signed into law a bill banning a federal mandate that citizens purchase health insurance. Earlier in March, the Virginia legislature passed a similar bill that Governor Bob McDonald has indicated he will sign. The AGs who filed suit Tuesday originally threatened the action in December, after the Senate passed its version of the health care overhaul bill.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on March 25, 2010 (boomark / email).