Obama criticized for health package abortion issue

The largest civil liberties group in the U.S. faulted President Barack Obama for signing an executive order on Wednesday that bans federal funds from being used for abortion procedures and revives funding for expired abstinence-only sex-education programming. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) issued a statement on Tuesday, joining pro-choice groups in criticizing Obama for including stipulations on abortion in his wide-ranging healthcare reform bill, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which was signed into law this week. Laura Murphy, director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office, characterized the order as "troubling", adding that "providing health care to Americans should not come at the expense of limits on constitutionally protected access to abortion," and that the White House's hard fought bill "came at a very high price for women's right to reproductive health care." Though the measure does little more than reiterate an existing prohibition on abortion funding, known as the Hyde amendment, it also reinstates the Title V abstinence-only-until-marriage program, which allots 50 million dollars a year for abstinence-based sex-education programs in public schools.