House Committee Votes in Favor of Ending Aid for Overseas Abortion Groups
Ohio, Missouri Join Long List of Other States That Put Restrictions on Late-Term Abortions
In an effort to challenge President Barack Obama's pro-abortion policy, a House panel has endorsed a ban that would prevent American tax dollars from being used to fund abortions abroad. The panel's action comes as two states toughen their laws on late-term abortions.
Having only been in office a few days, President Obama immediately went about reversing a Reagan-era policy that prevents federal money from going to international family planning groups that offer abortions or provide abortion information and counseling to women. The policy, rescinded in 2009, makes exceptions for those who have been raped, are victims of incest, or whose lives may be threatened by the pregnancy.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee voted 25-17 Thursday in favor of putting that policy back in place. The amendment is included in the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, a foreign aid bill which lawmakers worked on from late Wednesday into Thursday morning.
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Chances of the restriction, termed the Mexico City Policy, remaining in place appears thin as the bill heads to the mostly-Democratic Senate.
The policy, named for a conference in Mexico City where President Ronald Reagan first announced the measure, was overturned by former President Bill Clinton and re-instated by former President George W. Bush when he entered office.
The funding comes through family planning grants awarded by the U.S. Agency for International Aid (USAID).
On the domestic front, two states have joined a list of 39 others in putting stronger restrictions on late-term abortions.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich on Wednesday signed into law a bill that bans abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Exceptions include a doctor's determination of whether a fetus is non-viable and could not survive outside the womb. The bill, however, does not allow abortions in cases of rape or incest.
“Life is a gift from God and one way that we express our ongoing gratitude for it is by respecting it,” Kasich said in a statement. “This bill does that in a very fundamental way, and I'm proud to have signed it into law.”
In Missouri, Gov. Jay Nixon said he will allow a bill passed by the state Senate to come into law, although he will not sign the bill. State law allows for a bill to become law even without the governor’s signature.
The bill prohibits abortions on viable fetuses after 20 weeks unless the pregnancy would threaten the mother's life or cause her grave injury.
"Although people have differing views on this issue, it's important that we work together to provide accurate health information,” Nixon said, “promote personal responsibility, protect women's health, and improve foster care, adoption and child protection services."
Americans have long been torn over the issue of abortion, as are those in the medical field. For example, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has claimed they “know of no legitimate scientific information that supports the statement that a fetus experiences pain early in pregnancy.”
Christians, on the other hand, stand by the biblical principle that conception is the start of life and abortion is the taking of an innocent life.
“We believe that every human, in every condition from the single cell stage of development to natural death, is made in God's image and possesses inestimable worth,” Focus on the Family, a conservative Christian group, explains in their official position on the issue. “Abortion runs contrary to these beliefs.”
