Politics
Friday June 22, 2007
House Democrats Pass Contraceptive Aid Funding for Developing Countries
TODAY'S HEADLINES
E-MAIL
PRINT
By Hilary White
WASHINGTON, June 22, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Democrats in the US House of Representatives lifted a prohibition yesterday on allowing government donations of abortifacient and other contraceptives to abortion-promoting foreign aid organizations.
President Bush has twice said he will veto any legislation that weakens protection for life in the Mexico City Policy. The policy dates to the Reagan administration and prohibits any funding for any purpose to abortion providers in developing countries.
The amendment passed by a vote of 223-201, with 207 Democrats and 16 Republicans voting to allow the contraceptive funding.
Rep. Nita Lowey, the New York Democrat who wrote the amendment said, "It would advance the Bush administration's stated goal ... to make abortion more rare and protect women and children." Lowey's language reflects a move by the US Democrats to soften their image and adopt less militant language in their continued support for abortion.
Lowey, the chairman of the House appropriations panel overseeing the foreign aid funding, is a long-time militant abortion and contraception promoter in the House, and a supporter of the international population control agency, the UNFPA. She was behind a 1998 measure that forced federal employee health-care plans to cover contraceptives.
Lowey's first draft of the legislation specified that it would guarantee funds to any group so long as the assistance included funding for contraceptives.
Pro-life representatives argued that the bill would free up more resources for the groups' abortion activities and undermine the Mexico policy. "The Mexico policy exists to draw a bright line between U.S. family planning policy and abortion," said Rep. Joe Pitts, R-Pa. "However, it appears that there are some out there who wish to blur this line, (which) is what leads to coercive abortions and forced sterilizations."
Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
U.S. House Backs President's Mexico City Policy
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2001/may/01051601.html
Back to TopLatest Headlines
- Nun Defiant Following Rebuke, but Stops Abortion Escorting
- 32 States Saw Personhood Initiatives in 2009 - Movement Celebrates 1 Year Anniversary
- Call for Reform of U.S. Bishops' CCHD Bolstered by New Evidence
- New Zealand Study Finds Abortion Increases Risk of Mental Health Problems
- Commentary on Nov. 5 News
- United Nations Report Pushes for Right to Sex-Change Operations
- Never Mind: Judge Yanks 15-Year-Delayed Illinois Parental Notice Law Back Into Legal Limbo
- Confusion about Euthanasia Must be Dispelled Says Prominent Anti-Euthanasia Activist
- Newly Identified Corporate Supporters of Planned Parenthood Named
- Wisconsin Supreme Court Rejects Challenge to State's Homosexual Partnership Law
- Courageous Pro-Life Former MP Gus Mitges Passes Away
- Ad Depicting Nude Couple Having Sex Not Pornographic: UK Advertising Standards Authority
- Pro-Life Lawmakers Condemn 'Sham' Health Bill Abortion Compromise
- Conservative Pro-Life, Pro-Family Dark Horse in NY 23 Race Defeated in Close Race
- No British Referendum on Lisbon Treaty: Tory Leader
- Letters to the Editor - Nun Abortion Clinic Escort
Most Read this Week
- Planned Parenthood Director Resigns after Watching Ultrasound of Abortion Procedure
- Gardasil Researcher Admits Vaccine May Be More Dangerous than the Disease
- Breaking: Dominican Community Apologizes for Nun Caught Acting as Abortion Escort
- Over 200 Christendom College Students Protest Abortion at Planned Parenthood Clinic
- Did Feminism Benefit Men more than Women? Prominent US Feminist Asks
- Mother Charged in Murder of Her Autistic Son
- USCCB Launches All-Out Campaign against Abortion-Funding Healthcare
- Coalition of Catholic Groups Calls for Massive Reform of U.S. Bishops' Social Justice Arm
- Scottish Gay Rights Activists Found Guilty of Pedophilia Sentenced to Life Imprisonment
- Stem Cell Breakthrough Could Create Babies Without Men, Women, or Sexual Relations
MORE NEWS: 
LifeSiteNews.com Home Page Last 10 Days Archives Special Reports
Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.