The House voted 296-121 today for a spending bill that makes small cuts to funds for Planned Parenthood and the UNFPA, which promotes abortion and works with the Chinese population control officials.
Although some members wanted bigger cuts, pro-abortion Senate Democrats and pro-abortion President Barack Obama would not accept them.
H.R. 3671, the consolidated appropriations, bill retains all of the current pro-life riders — including provisions making it so the District of Columbia will not be able to fund abortions with federal taxpayer dollars. The policy is credited with saving the lives of hundreds of unborn children in the nation’s capital.
DC Vote, an organization that lobbies for expanded D.C. autonomy, protested the rider and urged lawmakers to remove the provision. “DC Vote urges everyone who is sick and tired of Congressional interference to attend,” the group said in a statement about a rally and press conference to complain.
Eleanor Holmes Norton, the pro-abortion D.C. delegate, complained about the pro-life provision as she normally does.
“We will never let the refusal to observe the principles of democracy here pass without a fight. It is outrageous enough to pay taxes without representation in the national government,” said Norton in a statement. “When Congress compounds the injury by confiscating the District’s own funding judgments, do not expect us to go quietly into the night.”
But Rep. Jim Moran, a pro-abortion Democrat from Virginia, said it was not worth fighting and shutting the government down over a debate on provision.
“You’ve got to be realistic,” he said. “If it’s already law [in the last spending bill], I doubt that it’s something that you would want to shut down the government over.”
Several new policies providing conscience protection (the Abortion Non-Discrimination Act), eliminating funding for abortion and abortion coverage under the Affordable Care Act, defunding Planned Parenthood and reinstating the Mexico City Policy were included in House draft bills because they were rejected by pro-abortion Senate Democrats.
Under the bill, $297 million is provided to Title X, a funding source for Planned Parenthood and that number is a $2 million reduction from the last fiscal year. The House Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations bill Republicans supported eliminated the funding but pro-abortion Senate Democrats wanted the previous year’s level of $299 million.
An amount of “not less than” $575 million is provided for international population control and family planning which funds foreign organizations that promote and perform abortion, the same as the previous fiscal year. House Republicans in committee voted to cut that to $461 million but pro-abortion Senate Democrats raised it to $700 million.
Finally, $35 million is provided for UNFPA, which is closely associated with the agency that enforces China’s one-child policy. That is a cut of $5 million from the previous fiscal year. House Republicans eliminated the funding entirely, but Senate Democrats funded the UNFPA to the tune of $40 million.
