Thirty-five senators today vowed to oppose a vital omnibus appropriations bill if Democratic leaders attempted to use it as a vehicle to overturn a number of longstanding pro-life policies.
The policy changes have already been inserted into committee versions of two pieces of omnibus appropriations legislation. Because five of the twelve Fiscal Year 2009 bills have not yet been passed, Democratic leaders are currently crafting a catch-all bill that will encompass all remaining omnibus appropriations legislation, including those with the controversial abortion policy changes.
The possible abortion-related provisions at issue would be:
– Lift a longstanding ban on funding of abortions by the city government of Washington, D.C., allowing funding of abortion on demand with federal funds.
– Lift a longstanding ban on coverage of elective abortions in the private health plans that participate in the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) program. The FEHB program covers over 7 million federal employees and dependents, including most members of Congress.
– Permanently prevent any U.S. president from re-enacting the Mexico City Policy, which would bar U.S. funding of foreign organizations that promote abortion.
In a letter delivered today to Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (Nv.), the 35 Republican senators, led by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), warned against any attempt to smuggle the new policies through as part of the important spending measure.
“We have grave concerns regarding the exclusion of longstanding funding limitations on abortion in various appropriations bills that are currently before Congress,” the lawmakers state in their letter. “These measures, which have enjoyed broad bipartisan support for many years, are meant to ensure that taxpayers are not forced to pay for or promote elective abortions either in the United States or abroad.
“Yet provisions calling for taxpayer financed abortions and the promotion of abortion have been included in the FY2010 Financial Services and State/Foreign Operations Appropriations bills. We cannot, in good conscience, allow these provisions to move forward, even in an omnibus appropriations bill.”
The letter warns that the lawmakers “are prepared to take full advantage of our rights under Senate rules” to prevent enactment of the abortion-related provisions.
Douglas Johnson, legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), commented: “At the same time that congressional Democratic leaders are trying to win enactment of government-funded abortion in their health care legislation, they are also considering using end-of-year omnibus appropriations legislation to try to smuggle in removals of longstanding bans on government-funded abortion in the nation’s Capitol, and in their own insurance plans.”
Earlier this year, Democrats employed a similar tactic to pass controversial legislation expanding federal hate-crimes protection to homosexuals, attaching the issue to a must-pass military defense spending bill.
