Rep. Chris Smith's New Bill is Necessary to Restore Abortion Funding Neutrality

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Jul 29, 2010, 01:15 ET

WASHINGTON, July 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- D.C. Family Research Council Action today praised U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) for introducing bipartisan legislation to codify federal abortion funding restrictions that have been greatly undermined this year. With passage of a health care law that will fund and subsidize abortion, and with efforts by pro-abortion senators to open up military bases to abortion, Rep. Smith is introducing legislation to enact a government-wide abortion funding ban.

Family Research Council Action Senior Vice President Tom McClusky praised the bill with the following comments:

"In the last year, we have seen President Obama and pro-abortion congressional leaders make repeated attempts to eviscerate the long-agreed line on federal funding of abortion. They began by enacting the abortion funding health care law and are now advancing an abortion agenda that includes turning our military hospitals into abortion facilities.

"The American people have responded swiftly and emphatically that their hard earned dollars should not be used to pay for other peoples abortions. We applaud Congressman Smith and numerous Members on both sides of the aisle for responding to the concerns of the American people by introducing a measure that applies an abortion funding ban across the federal government.

"The American people, regardless of their views of abortion's legality, should not be forced to pay for someone's abortion. The Smith bill would protect the American taxpayer and restore the traditional ban on government funding of elective abortion.

"Despite recent claims by the Department of Health and Human Services that it will not fund abortion, even the non-partisan Congressional Research Service agreed yesterday that there is no statutory prohibition on funding abortion in the high risk pools. Both pro-life and pro-abortion groups agree that the courts are likely to require federal abortion funding unless the law says differently which is why passage of Congressman Smith's abortion funding neutrality bill is so essential.

"We applaud all the Democrats and Republicans cosponsoring the Smith abortion funding ban, and urge all Americans to support this commonsense effort to restore government funding neutrality on abortion," concluded McClusky.

SOURCE Family Research Council Action