Senate Democrats Attempt to Gut Pro-Life Abortion Policies

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Nov 11, 2011   |   2:52PM   |   Washington, DC

Senate Democrats are attempting to gut four pro-life policies in the minibus bill the Senate will consider next week, and Concerned Women for America is urging pro-life advocates to contact senators to urge support for them.

As LifeNews reported, the Senate is expected to vote soon on four key abortion issues of interest to pro-life advocates and they affect whether taxpayer dollars will pay for abortions and go to pro-abortion groups.

“Instead of working to get our fiscal house back in order, the Senate will be voting on a “minibus” spending bill next week that focuses on demolishing several pro-life protections,” CWA said in a legislative alert to its members today.

“This minibus includes Senator Frank Lautenberg’s (D-New Jersey) amendment to permanently prohibit future presidents from implementing the Mexico City Policy. The Mexico City Policy, first implemented by President Reagan, disallows tax-dollars to be used to subsidize organizations that promote or perform abortions abroad,” the pro-life women’s group said. “It also increases International Family Planning funds $125 million over last year’s and includes $40 million requested by President Obama for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), which is complicit in China’s barbaric program of forced and coercive abortion and sterilization.”

“Finally, the minibus once again lifts the D.C. abortion and federal employee benefits health bans on elective abortions,” CWA adds. “Several pro-life senators are readying amendments to fix these concerns as we speak, but they need your help now! Please call your senators now at 202-224-3121 and urge them to support the following amendments.”

The amendments include:

1. An amendment to strike the Lautenberg language that prevents future administrations from reinstating the Mexico City Policy.
2. An amendment to prevent taxpayer funding of abortions in the District of Columbia.
3. An amendment to ensure that federal employee health plans do not include elective abortion coverage.
4. An amendment to defund UNFPA.
5. An amendment to decrease funding for International Family Planning.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican, will offer a pro-life amendment to strike language in the bill sponsored by pro-abortion Sen. Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey that prohibits any future presidential administration from reinstituting the Mexico City Policy that pro-abortion President Barack Obama removed via executive order during his first week in office.

The policy, which President Barack Obama ditched during his first week in office, has been in place when pro-life Republican presidents have held office — starting with Ronald Reagan — and has been revoked by pro-abortion Democrats Obama and Bill Clinton. Planned Parenthood is one of the major recipients of millions of dollars through the State Department and the USAID program and the abortion business refused to stop doing abortions or lobbying other nations to change their pro-life laws during the Bush administration so it could receive funds for non-abortion family planning services.

A House committee approved legislation that would restore the policy, but pro-abortion Senators Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat, and Frank Lautenberg, a New jersey Democrat, have introduced the so-called Global Democracy Promotion Act, that would permanently ban what Boxer derisively calls the “Global Gag Rule,” because it prohibits abortion businesses from promoting abortion on the taxpayer dime.

Next, Senator Mike Johanns of Nebraska is floating an amendment that would negate language in the minibus bill that would remove the current Dornan Amendment, or the D.C. Hyde Amendment, which prevents taxpayers from being forced to pay for abortions in the District of Columbia.

In April, pro-life Speaker John Boehner secured an budget agreement that, in part, restored the ban on taxpayer funding of abrotions in the nation’s capital and the Johanns amendment would prevent Democrats from striking it.

In that agreement Boehner made earlier this year, the federal budget cuts funding to the pro-abortion UNFPA (United Nations Family Planning Agency) that has worked hand-in-hand with Chinese population control officials who have enforced the one-child rule with forced abortions and other human rights abuses. Republicans trimmed funding for the agency from the $55 million President Barack Obama put in place to $40 million.

Obama supporters in the House and Senate want to overturn  those cuts, but Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi has an amendment to totally de-funbd the UNFPA via the minibus bill.

Finally, Democrats sponsoring the minibus legislation failed to include language in the bill preventing the health insurance program covering federal employees from paying for abortions with taxpayer funds. Sen. Tom Coburn, a pro-life Oklahoma Republican, is sponsoring an amendment would restore the ban on coverage of elective abortions in the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) program.

ACTION: Contact your members of the Senate and urge strong support for these four pro-life amendments to the minibus bill. Tell senators to vote against the minibus if the amendments are not approved.