Pro-Life Women in Congress Want to Stop Obama’s Bid for Tax-Funded Abortions
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
June 24, 2009
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Leading pro-life women in Congress held a press conference today asking for the House of Representatives to reject President Barack Obama’s bid to make taxpayers fund abortions in the nation’s capital. Obama’s national budget recommendations include removing a longstanding pro-life provision.
Obama wants to repeal a federal law called the Dornan amendment that has prevented tax-funded abortion in the District of Columbia for many years.
Congress, as authorized by the U.S. Constitution, holds complete legislative authority over the District of Columbia and, therefore, determines whether taxpayer dollars will be used to fund abortions for poor women there.
Rep. Mary Fallin, an Oklahoma Republican, said Obama’s proposal "represents a gigantic step in the wrong direction" and "will increase the total number of abortions performed in our nation’s capitol."
She said it would also "allow minors to receive federally funded abortions without their parents’ consent" and would "violate the consciences of millions of pro-life Americans who do not want their money used to fund procedures they find morally unacceptable."
Fallin is calling on the House Financial Services Committee to reject the Obama plan to overturn the Dornan amendment.
Rep. Virginia Foxx also participated in the press conference.
“Over the past several months, the Obama administration has begun to erode the pro-life protections in place to keep taxpayer dollars from paying for abortions. It started with the repeal of the Mexico City policy, which restricted taxpayer money from funding groups providing abortions overseas," she said.
Foxx said Obama’s latest move would violate his pledge to reduce abortions because Washington, D.C. "has one of the most troubling track records in the nation when it comes to its abortion policies" and "one of the highest abortion rates in the county."
“It is no secret that D.C.’s lax abortion policies draw women to D.C. abortion clinics from other states. Repealing the Dornan Amendment would mean allowing D.C. to use tax dollars to foot the bill for abortions for minors, and potentially for minors from other states," she said.
Marjorie Dannenfelser, of the Susan B. Anthony List, the pro-life women’s group that organized the press conference, said women deserve better solutions than abortion.
"Women facing unplanned pregnancies deserve woman-centered solutions to help both mother and child, not abortion on-demand, which pits mother against child in the most tragic of circumstances," she told LifeNews.com.
"Common sense dictates one truism: we won’t find reductions in abortion as long as we continue to subsidize and promote it at taxpayers’ expense. The Obama administration’s promise to find ways to reduce abortion numbers rings hollow in such an environment," she added.
Chairwoman of the Pro-Life Women’s Caucus Rep. Jean Schmidt, Foxx, Fallin, and Rep. Michele Bachmann joined Dannenfelser at today’s press conference.
Susan B. Anthony List activists have also sent over 230,000 letters urging Congress to keep taxpayer funds from supporting abortion on-demand in 2009, 30,000 of which urge preservation of the Dornan Amendment
Related web sites:
Susan B. Anthony List – https://www.sba-list.org
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