Senate Cmte Cuts Abstinence Education Funds 25 Percent, Bush May Veto
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
June 26, 2008
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — A Senate appropriations subcommittee voted Tuesday to cut abstinence education funding by 25 percent, but President Bush may veto the bill that includes the change. The funding cut is included in a $631 billion bill that funds the departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Education.
The cut reduces the funding to $84.8 million for fiscal year 2009.
The bill also significantly increases funding for community health centers that distribute contraception and birth control from $150 million to $2.2 billion.
The legislation would also put $300 million in the pocket of Planned Parenthood through the federal government’s Title X family planning programs. The bill keeps the funding level the same as last year.
Because the bill exceeds the president’s proposed budget by $7.2 billion, it will most likely face a presidential veto.
Before the measure reaches the president’s desk, the full Senate must debate and vote on it and Sen. Tom Harkin, a pro-abortion Iowa Democrat who heads the committee that cut the abstinence funding, told Congressional Quarterly he plans to get Democratic leaders to bring it up next month.
The budget cut comes as almost half the states in the nation have cut their abstinence education funding programs by turning down the grant money the federal government makes available for them.
The cuts are coming in part because states are having a hard time putting forth matching funds.
But the biggest reason is the pro-abortion push against abstinence programs because federal and state funds have been diverted from Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion business.
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