Obama Nominee for Deputy Secretary of State: Taxpayers Must Fund Abortions
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
January 26, 2009
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — With President Barack Obama’s recent decision to force taxpayers to fund groups that promote and perform abortions in other nation’s, it should come as no surprise that his nominee for Deputy Secretary of State has informed members of the Senate he thinks taxpayers must fund abortions.
James B. Steinberg made the pro-abortion funding statement in written testimony to the Foreign Relations Committee.
But Obama’s pick to help pro-abortion former Sen. Hillary Clinton head up the nation’s foreign policy, goes further.
Steinberg claims Congress cannot constitutionally restrict taxpayer funding to perform or promote abortions. He says the Mexico City policy, which Obama rescinded last week, "is an unnecessary restriction that, if applied to organizations based in this country, would be an unconstitutional limitation on free speech."
Sen. Jim DeMint, a pro-life Republican from South Carolina, posted comments from Steinberg on his web site.
DeMint says Steinberg’s claim that Congress can’t limit taxpayer funding of abortions flies in the face of a 1991 Supreme Court decision calling abortion funding limits constitutional.
In its Rust v. Sullivan decision, the high court says, "The Government has no constitutional duty to subsidize an activity merely because it is constitutionally protected, and may validly choose to allocate public funds for medical services relating to childbirth but not to abortion."
"Steinberg’s opinion is in direct contradiction to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has already definitively decided the matter," DeMint writes.
The exchange came during DeMint’s questioning of the nominee during a committee hearing on his confirmation. In prefacing his question, DeMint criticized President Obama’s decision to scrap the Mexico City Policy.
"For more than 30 years the Hyde amendments, which prohibit federal funding for abortion services, have been supported by Republican and Democrat administrations and Congresses," DeMint said.
"Unfortunately, while this is the domestic policy of the United States, President Obama has vowed to reverse our foreign policy by repealing the Mexico City policy and use the federal taxpayer dollars to fund abortion services overseas," he said.
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