Senate Measure Would Overturn Bush’s Mexico City Polic
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
September 6, 2003
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — A pro-abortion senator on Friday inserted an amendment into a bill that would overturn President Bush’s Mexico City Policy that prevents taxpayer funding of organizations that perform or promote abortions in other countries.
On his first day as president, Bush reinstated the Reagan-era pro-life foreign policy that Clinton revoked when he was elected. Bush expanded the policy last week to ensure that all State Department programs abided by it, not just programs funded by USAID.
Pro-abortion Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) sponsored the amendment in the Senate Appropriations Committee.
The results of the amendment vote were not available, but pro-life lawmakers were likley not able to defeat it because two pro-abortion Republicans, Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Ben Campbell (R-CO), are members of the committee and may have voted for Reid’s amendment. Both voted have voted against the Mexico City Policy in the past.
"The global gag rule is a policy that should be abolished, not expanded. The amendment we passed today will protect women and free speech around the world," Reid said in a statement after the vote.
Pro-life senators may offer a motion to the bill on the floor to remove Reid’s amendment. If that fails, pro-life lawmakers will likely remove it during the conference committee where the differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill are ironed out.
President Bush has said on numerous occasions that he would veto any funding bill that removed the Mexico City Policy.
