Obama’s Priority: $10M More for Abortion Biz, $3M Less for Stem Cell Research
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
July 20, 2009
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — The House of Representatives this week is starting debate on a bill that reflects President Barack Obama’s budget priorities. Despite his campaign rhetoric, the measure, which conforms to Obama’s budget request, contains $10 million more for an abortion business and less for stem cell research.
On Wednesday or Thursday of this week, the House will consider the Labor, Health, and Human Services funding bill for fiscal year 2010.
The legislation contains several pro-life provisions that limit taxpayer funding of abortions such as the Hyde amendment, conscience protections for health care workers, and language preventing the destruction of human embryos for research.
But it also contains two spending items that are diametrically opposed to Obama’s speechifying on the campaign trail.
The measure, at Obama’s request, contains nearly $12 million for the National Cord Blood Inventory. But that is $3 million less than was authorized originally authorized by Congress during the Bush administration in contracts for stem cell banks that store umbilical cord blood to maintain a national registry.
Cord blood has proven very effective in supplying adult stem cells that have already helped patients with more than 100 diseases or medical conditions.
The contracts are a result of the Stem Cell Research and Therapeutic Act of 2005 which Congress overwhelmingly approved in December 2005 as an alternative to forcing taxpayers to fund embryonic stem cell research, which destroys human life and which Obama forced funding of earlier this year.
Meanwhile, the Obama administration requested $317 million in increased spending for the Title X family planning program, which is controversial because it funds the Planned Parenthood abortion business.
Obama asked for a $10 million increase in the program over the fiscal year 2009 levels even though Planned Parenthood’s own figures show it doing more abortions than last year and more than ever before.
To combat Obama’s abortion agenda, pro-life Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) plans to offer an amendment in the Rules Committee this week to de-fund Planned Parenthood and make it so none of the family planning monies can go to groups that do abortions.
The House last voted on de-funding Planned Parenthood in 2007 and it failed by a vote of 231–189.
But the vote isn’t deterring Pence from moving ahead with his amendment.
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