Senate Democrats caved on the issue of abortion late Friday night despite facing enormous pressure from pro-abortion groups to hold the line on taxpayer funding of abortion and Planned Parenthood funding.
Republicans and Democrats agreed to a budget deal with less than two hours to spare before the federal government engaged in a partial shutdown. The deal restores language that prohibits federal taxpayer funding of abortions in the nation’s capital that President Barack Obama and Democrats removed in a previous budget when they controlled both chambers of Congress.
Secondly, the deal requires Senate Democrats to allow a vote on a bill the House Republicans already approved to repeal the pro-abortion Obamacare bill that contains abortion funding and rationing concerns.
The deal also requires something Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said he would never allow ”” a vote in the Senate on revoking funding for the Planned Parenthood abortion business.
“Those that I focused on are not only no, but hell no,” Reid said previouslyabout whether he would allow a vote on de-funding. “I’m not going to be part of that. I won’t do it,” he said about efforts to cut Planned Parenthood funding on the part of House Republicans.
Tonight, Speaker John Boehner forced him to allow a vote in the Senate on funding the abortion business that provides pro-life advocates an opportunity to further raise points about how Planned Parenthood doesn’t protect women’s health, has covered up cases of sexual abuse, and has used $363 million in annual federal funding from the government to prop up a business that now does more than one-quarter of all abortions in the nation.
The Planned Parenthood funding vote in the Senate also contains significant 2012 election implications for the three “pro-life” Democrats who will be up for re-election next year ”” Sens. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania. Other Democrats who are under the gun next election year and face tough re-election battles may also take heavy criticism from pro-life advocates if they vote to keep tens of millions of dollars going to the nation’s biggest abortion business.
The portion of the deal pertaining the banning taxpayer funding of abotion is already being hailed by pro-life groups as a significant victory and one that will result in saving the lives of 1,000 unborn children annually who may have been aborted.
The DC abortion funding ban would restore the Dornanamendment to ensure that no congressionally appropriated funds (whether locally or federally generated) may pay for abortion in the District of Columbia. The good news for pro-life advocates is that the inclusion of the Dornan Amendment in the one-week continuing resolution ensures it remains in place to prohibit abortion funding in the nation’s capital for the rest of the year.
