On January 28, 2014, the U.S. House of Representatives approved the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act (H.R. 7). Cardinal O’Malley of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities had urged the full House to support the measure. See: usccb.org/news/2014/14-026.cfm. Focus now turns to the U.S. Senate, where Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) and 26 co-sponsors have introduced the companion bill (S. 946). (Sen. Wicker’s bill does not include the text of the Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act, which was added to H.R. 7.)
The No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act would place in permanent law a consistent policy that the federal government should not use tax dollars to support or promote elective abortion. Since 1976 this principle has been embodied in the Hyde amendment to annual appropriations bills funding the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and in numerous similar provisions governing a wide range of domestic and foreign programs. There has long been popular and congressional agreement in favor of this policy, and recent polls continue to show a majority of Americans agree that the government should not be funding abortions.
Recommended Action: Send e-mails through NCHLA’s Grassroots Action Center. Click Here. Contact your Senators by phone. Call the U.S. Capitol switchboard at: 202-224-3121, or call your Senators' local office. Additional contact info can be found on Senators’ web sites at: www.senate.gov.
Suggested Message: “Please co-sponsor and support the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, S. 946. Our tax dollars should not be used to fund or promote abortion.”
When: Contact your Senators today!
Background
Even though the U.S. Supreme Court claimed a constitutional “right” to abortion, it has ruled that government can allocate public funds to favor childbirth over abortion. In a 1980 case on this issue the Court stated: “Abortion is inherently different from other medical procedures, because no other procedure involves the purposeful termination of potential life.” (In later rulings the Court has spoken more directly of respecting the life of the unborn.) Some assume that the consensus against public funding of abortion is already fully implemented. In January 9 testimony, Richard Doerflinger, Associate Director of the Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, stated, “The fact is that Congress’s policy has been remarkably consistent for decades, but the implementation of that policy in practice has been piecemeal, confusing and sometimes sadly inadequate.” Mr. Doerflinger explained how the current patchwork approach has time and again left loopholes that then needed to be addressed. Most recently, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) “contains at least four different policies on this issue,” and developments since enactment reveal ways “it allows expanded federal support for abortion, if not corrected by later legislation.” S. 946 would correct this problem, in the Affordable Care Act and for future legislation. See: www.usccb.org/news/2014/14-005.cfm.
