News

WASHINGTON, D.C., February 23, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The spending bill that would defund Planned Parenthood and that was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives early Saturday morning is not likely to see the light of day in the Senate, except in a very different form, one source on Capitol Hill told LifeSiteNews.com Wednesday.

“Most likely the Senate will not take up H.R. 1,” said the source, noting that, if they do, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid would probably replace it with “a substitute bill that is entirely different from the House-passed version.” 

“Fighting for the pro-life policies will most likely happen in negotiations between the House and Senate,” the source added.

The Continuing Resolution, or H.R. 1, grabbed headlines for the inclusion of an amendment that would defund Planned Parenthood, but the news overshadowed the measure’s other momentous pro-life measures.

The measure would re-establish the Mexico City Policy, which bars foreign aid funds from going to international organizations that perform or promote abortion. President Obama had struck down the policy by Executive Order three days after his inauguration in January 2009.

It also eliminates funding for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), which American investigations have concluded is complicit in China’s coercive population control policy.

After the Bush administration investigated UNFPA-assisted Chinese regions, where forced abortion and sterilization was found to have occurred, Bush gutted funding to the UN agency. The Obama administration restored $50 million in annual aid to the UNFPA with no comment about the China allegations, and has ignored further investigations by the Population Research Institute confirming the UNFPA’s continued complicity in the maltreatment of Chinese citizens.

President Obama has promised to veto the legislation in its current form. A line-item veto is not possible, meaning that the president will be forced to either reject or accept the entire bill as agreed upon by the House and Senate.

Congress will resume battling over the bill after it returns from recess this week.