Rep. Smith: New U.S. House Arguably Most Pro-Life Ever
By Kathleen Gilbert
WASHINGTON, D.C., November 5, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Tuesday’s historic elections sent the message that more Americans want their lawmakers to consistently defend vulnerable human life and reject the president’s radical pro-abortion agenda, said the chamber’s most prominent pro-life leader.
Widespread discontent with the administration’s progressive agenda, particularly on abortion-funding health care, spurred voters to launch a strong pro-life Majority into the House of Representatives in the 2010 midterm elections.
“The American people have spoken, and replaced 38 pro-abortion Members with pro-life Members and replaced 14 unreliable Members with reliable pro-life Representatives,” said Congressman Chris Smith, Co-Chairman of the Congressional Pro-life Caucus. “Of the 93 Members of the Freshman Class at least 77 are committed to defending the unborn.
“January will mark the beginning of the arguably most pro-life House ever,” Smith said. “This is another message to President Obama that the American people will not be fooled by the Obama’s accounting gimmicks and phony Executive Orders. They expect their elected officials to stand up for life without backing down.”
Gallup polls and other polls have shown that over the past several years, more Americans increasingly consider themselves pro-life than pro-abortion. Over the past 15 years, the number of Americans identifying themselves as pro-life has grown from 33 percent to 47 percent in 2010, and the number of Americans identifying themselves as pro-choice has fallen from 56 percent to 45 percent.
This Congress, Smith introduced the No Taxpayer Dollars for Abortion Act (H.R. 5939) which has 185 cosponsors and is likely to receive priority consideration in the new 112th Congress. Smith’s bill, introduced with Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-IL) seeks to establish a government-wide statutory prohibition on federal funding of abortion.