| House Backs Foreign Aid Abortion Ban | |
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Dateline: 05/16/01
The U.S. House of Representatives today voted 218-210 to uphold President Bush's reinstatement of the "Mexico City Policy" denying U.S. foreign aid to overseas organizations that promote or perform abortions.
The provision came as an amendment to H.R. 1646, an $8.2 billion bill to reauthorize spending for the State Department for the years 2002-2003. Thirty-two Democrats joined Republican supporters in voting for the amendment, while 33 Republicans voted in opposition. The total appropriations bill is still being debated by the House.
As they did in January when President Bush first reinstated the Mexico City Policy by Executive Order, a majority of Democrats opposed the action.
In today's debate on the amendment, Democratic House leader Dick Gephardt of Missouri asked his fellow representatives, "do we empower women and families across the globe with the ability to plan for the number of children they will have? Or do we pull the rug out from under these important efforts?"
While a 1973 federal law has prevented the direct use of U.S. funds to pay for abortions or abortion-related activities, Republican leaders argued that foreign organizations regularly manipulated money in order to do so. The 1973 failed to prevent U.S. funds from being made "fungible," or capable of being moved from account-to-account, according to Republicans.
On April 26, 2001, House Republicans opposed to abortion succeeded in passing 252-172, The Unborn Victims of Violence Act of 2001 providing harsh penalties for injuring or killing an unborn child during the commission of a federal violent crime. [See: Fetal Protection Act Passes House, by your About Guide.]
The Senate, divided evenly 50-50 between Republicans and Democrats has yet to take up either of the abortion measures.
Today's action does not reduce the $425 million earmarked by the Bush administration for providing worldwide population control assistance and education. Rather, it directs that none of those funds be given to organizations that promote abortion as a method of family planning.
