Yesterday Sonia Sotomayor because the first Latina nominated to the Supreme Court in U.S. history. She is known for her keen legal mind and her generally liberal philosophy but her record on the bench gives few hints about how she’d rule on abortion.

This week President Obama surprised some of his supporters in the reproductive rights and women’s health communities by publicly asking House Democrats to strike a provision in the stimulus package that would have expanded birth control coverage for low-income women. As you might expect, Media Consortium writers are abuzz.

The global gag rule has never reduced abortion — rather, it resulted in an attack on the delivery of family planning services that could help reduce abortion. And now President Obama has repealed it.

In his inaugural speech, Obama underscored a desire to find creative new solutions to problems. Overturning the global gag rule is one step towards remedying reproductive health challenges but there are many others that require creative solutions.

President-elect Obama envisions a society that allows Americans to move past the division that has defined a generation of the most bitter politics, division that brought our government to a stalemate.

Written by Scott Swenson for RH Reality Check.