By Emma Batha
President Joe Biden s decision to scrap a deadly Trump-era policy banning funding for aid groups that discuss abortion could unleash billions in dollars for life-saving services in developing countries, women s rights groups said.
US President Joe Biden at work in the Oval Office.
Photo: AFP It s very, very good news. It sends a strong message that reproductive rights are human rights, said Evelyne Opondo, Africa director at the Center for Reproductive Rights. I m hoping this will allow many clinics to reopen across Africa and save thousands of women s lives, she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Almost $9 billion (NZ$12.4 billion) in US foreign aid is at stake under the Mexico City Policy , also known as the global gag rule , which prevents foreign groups providing abortion services or counselling from receiving U.S. funding.
President Joe Biden signed more than a dozen executive actions on his first day in office, some of which reverse decisions made by his predecessor, Donald Trump.
Several executive actions will make changes to the U.S. response to Covid-19 and try to ease some of the financial strain on Americans resulting from the pandemic. Other executive actions directly target and undo Trump’s actions on the environment, immigration, the U.S. census, and regulatory changes.
Biden signed three executive orders in the presence of reporters — implementing a mask mandate on federal property, increasing support for underserved communities and rejoining the Paris climate accord
The prime minister of Tuvalu, Kausea Natano.
Photo: Supplied / Government of Tuvalu
With hours of his taking the oath as the 46th US President, Joe Biden issued an executive order for the US to return to the Paris Agreement.
Forum Chair Kausea Natano, who is Tuvalu s prime minister, said that the US order was a priority was warmly appreciated in the Pacific
Natano said he looked forward to continued and strengthened relationships between the people of the Pacific and the US, especially on the climate crisis facing the Blue Pacific .
He said the international community must use the positive development to inject greater urgency to climate action on the Paris goal of limiting global warming increase to within 1.5-degrees celsius
President Biden has said he intends to take swift action to address the health and economic fallout brought on by the pandemic, and on his first day in office, he did just that.
Presidents Bush, Clinton and Obama stood with their wives in line behind the new president and vice-president - a silent show of unity and a rebuke to Donald Trump for snubbing the inauguration.