Stopping abortion funding in the nation’s capital, a vote in the Senate on de-funding Planned Parenthood, and cutting taxpayer funding of population control groups — those are some of the benefits of last Friday’s budget deal.
Today, Speaker John Boehner noted those benefits and thanked various pro-life groups for their comments in support of those votes and the benefits Boehner’s negotiating obtained.
“The comments provided by these leaders in the pro-life community provide a positive boost for the agreement – which, while falling short of what truly must be done to protect innocent, unborn life, prohibits taxpayer funding of abortion in D.C. and allows the fight for life on other fronts to continue,” he said.
Boehner added that the deal is good but vows more needs to be done to protect innocent, unborn life.
The comment Boehner cited appear below:
Americans United for Life (AUL), National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), and Susan B. Anthony List (SBA List) are praising the pro-life protections included in the spending cut agreement to be voted on later this week.
LifeNews.com says House Republicans “are giving the pro-life community more good news when it comes to de-funding abortion and pro-abortion groups.”
NRLC explains in a letter to members of Congress that the agreement “contains a very important pro-life provision, the ‘D.C. Hyde Amendment’” that would “would restore a prohibition on the use of government funds to pay for abortion in the [Washington, DC] (except to save the life of the mother, or in cases of rape or incest).” NRLC “strongly supports the restoration of this pro-life policy.”
SBA List says “pro-life leadership in the House forced this important concession from Senate Democrats and President Obama during the budget debate. Lives will be saved because of their commitment to Life.”
The final agreement also includes guarantees that the U.S. Senate will vote on separate measures to eliminate taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood and any of its affiliates, and to defund President Obama’s job-crushing health care law which allows taxpayer dollars to be used for abortions.
LifeNews.com notes that “a vote on revoking the taxpayer funding of the Planned Parenthood abortion business” is “something pro-abortion Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid previously said he would not allow.”
And Dr. Charmaine Yoest with AUL says “Speaker Boehner achieved what most said was impossible – cutting taxpayer funding of abortion in the District of Columbia and guaranteeing straight up-or-down votes in the Senate on both defunding Planned Parenthood and President Obama’s pro-abortion health care law.” She says a Senate vote on defunding ObamaCare is “a pro-life victory.”
