By Peter J. Smith
WASHINGTON, D.C., December 17, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The District of Columbia now has a green light to allocate some of its federally-funded budget to subsidize the abortions of low-income women after President Barack Obama signed the measure into law as part of a $1.1 trillion omnibus spending package for the 2010 fiscal year.
Congress had approved the measure on Sunday, which combines $447 billion funding the federal government's operating budget with $650 billion in payments for existing federal benefit programs.
The bill lifts the Dornan amendment, which for thirteen years had prevented the D.C. local government from allocating federal funds appropriated for its operating budget to pay for the elective abortions of poor women except in cases of rape, incest, or threat to the life of the mother.
The bill also makes approximately 700 million in “family-planning” dollars available to abortion-advocacy groups and abortion providers overseas, including the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
Without public ceremony at the White House, President Obama signed the bill on Wednesday.
Rev. Thomas Euteneuer of Human Life International condemned the bill's anti-life provisions saying, “They have opened up the floodgates for murderous population controllers to use every means necessary to eliminate the weakest and poorest in developing nations.”
The federal spending package allocates $648.5 million for “international family planning” that international abortion providers and promoters can now access. Earlier this year President Obama lifted the Mexico City policy, which for years during the Bush Administration had prevented these groups from tapping into these funds.
The bill also provides $55 million to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), which has collaborated with China in performing coerced abortions and sterilizations to carry out the “one child policy.”
“Our country is broke. We keep having to increase our debt limit so we can borrow more money. And we are now borrowing money so that our government can fund the killing of unborn children,” said Rev. Euteneuer. “I cannot imagine a scenario more shameful than that which we are now witnessing,”
“Now we are collaborating with those who think that there are too many Africans, too many Asians and Latinos, too many unwanted human beings.”
While a significant blow to pro-life policy, the final omnibus bill signed by the President did not contain proposed Senate amendments that would have codified the repeal of the Mexico City Policy into federal law and have subsidized abortions for federal employees.
See previous coverage by LifeSiteNews.com:
Congress Approves Funding for D.C. Abortions, Overseas Providers
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/dec/09121407.html