Legislation which would permanently prohibit taxpayer funding of
abortion across all federal programs is “one of our highest legislative
priorities,” the new Speaker of the House has said in his introduction
to the legislation.
U.S. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Reps. Chris Smith
(R-N.J.), Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.) and Joe Pitts (R-Penn.) held a press
conference on Jan. 20 to discuss the introduction of H.R. 3, the “No
Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act.”
Speaker Boehner said the new Republican majority is keeping its
commitment to taxpayers by “ensuring their tax dollars are never used to
fund abortions.”
He said an abortion funding ban is “the will of the people and ought to be the law of the land.”
Rep. Smith cited a Quinnipac University poll that found 67 percent of
taxpayers oppose publicly funded abortion and a Guttmacher Institute
study that shows when abortion is not publicly funded, abortions in the
covered population are reduced by about 25 percent.
“Our new bill is designed to permanently end any U.S. government
financial support for abortion whether it be direct funding or by tax
credits or any other subsidy,” he continued.
While present federal funding regulations contain restrictions on abortion, many of these restrictions must be renewed annually.
Rep. Smith noted that the new bill also protects conscience rights of
individuals and institutions by giving courts the authority to “prevent
and redress actual or threatened violations of conscience.”
He cited the example of Cathy DeCarlo, a nurse at Mt. Sinai Hospital
in New York who was compelled despite her strong religious and moral
objections to assist in a dilation and extraction abortion.
Though she
sued on the grounds that her right to conscience had been violated, her
case was dismissed because federal law does not provide penalties for
the way she was treated.
The U.S. bishops have urged the passage of legislation to amend the
2010 health care legislation called the Patient Protection and
Affordable Care Act to prevent it explicitly from either providing
abortion directly, or funding health care plans and community health
centers that do so.
SIC: CNA/INT'L