In a Statement (full text) explaining the policy change, President Obama said:
For too long, international family planning assistance has been used as a political wedge issue, the subject of a back and forth debate that has served only to divide us. I have no desire to continue this stale and fruitless debate. It is time that we end the politicization of this issue.Several Catholic groups issued statements criticizing the President's action. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops called the move "very disappointing." Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, called the action arrogant. (AFP). Perhaps the strongest criticism came from Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, who said: "Here we have a black president taking money from the taxpayers in a time of economic crisis and giving it to organizations —many of which are anti-Catholic— so they can spend it on killing non-white babies in Third World nations."
Meanwhile, a statement from the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism welcomed Obama's decision, saying: "In a world where poor reproductive health remains the leading cause of death for women, and complications from unsafe abortion result in approximately 67,000 deaths and at least 5 million serious injuries annually, today marks an important step forward."