MCFL: Very important call to Sen. Brown!

by: MCFL Press Release

Wed Nov 02, 2011 at 12:52:38 PM EDT

HR 2354 would repeal or weaken pro-life policies:

1.  The "Lautenberg Amendment," on pp. 479-80, added by the Appropriations Committee, would prohibit any future president from diverting U.S. population assistance funds away from overseas groups that perform and actively promote abortion.

2.  Language (on page 225) would effectively repeal the "D.C. Hyde Amendment," which was restored as part of the negotiated FY 2011 continuing resolution, replacing it with the previous meaningless language that guarantees a resumption of government-funded abortion on demand in the Federal District.

3.  The bill omits (and would therefore repeal) the ban on coverage of elective abortion in the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) program.  This pro-life policy has been in effect, with one brief interruption, for over 25 years. The result of the minibus language would be direct federal funding of health plans that cover abortion on demand for millions of federal employees and their dependants, including Members of Congress and congressional staff.

4.  Language that weakens the longstanding restriction on funding of abortions by the Peace Corps (page 265).

In addition, the bill contains these additional objectionable and/or questionable elements:

5.  It sets funding for population assistance at "not less than $700 million" (p. 391). while the House bill provides for not more than $461 million.  The Obama Administration has turned this program into an engine for promotion of abortion.

6.  Report language on one of the component committee-reported bills, S. 1601, specifies that the UNFPA shall receive $40 million; the House bill would defund UNFPA.  As you know, the UNFPA is deeply involved in China's coercive population control program, which relies heavily on government-coerced abortions.  NRLC opposes funding for the UNFPA.

7.  The bill would make changes to the longstanding abortion-related restrictions sometimes referred to loosely as the "Helms language."  It does not appear that these changes are of great consequence, but we see no need for them and the reasoning behind them is unclear.