FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 18, 2021
Contact: Prudence Robertson, [email protected], 240-672-2828
Democrats Introduce 9 Spending Bills that Defy Longstanding Bipartisan Consensus on Pro-life Hyde Amendment
Washington, D.C. – Today Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) introduced nine appropriations bills without longstanding Hyde protections. The Hyde Amendment and its family of pro-life riders stop taxpayer funded abortion at home and abroad and have saved millions of American lives. In addition to removing the Hyde Amendment, these bills also:
- Codify removal of the Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance Act (PLGHA), which was instituted by President Trump and stops U.S. taxpayer funding of the abortion industry overseas.
- Remove the Hyde-Weldon Amendment, which stops discrimination against healthcare entities that do not participate in abortion.
- Require Title X grantees to provide abortion counseling and referrals, in addition to increasing Title X funding by 75%.
- Remove the Dornan Amendment, which stops taxpayer funding of abortion in the District of Columbia.
- Remove the Smith Amendment, which stops taxpayer funding of abortion for federal employees.
- Gut the Kemp-Kasten Amendment, which stops U.S. dollars from funding organizations that support or participate in coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization.
- Increase funding by over $20 million for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), which has actively partnered with some of the worst human rights abusers in the world, like China and North Korea.
- And more
SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser called out Democrats in a statement:
“Democrat senators are marching in lockstep with Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, and the radical abortion lobby over the will of the American people and the lives of the vulnerable. Not only do they want to expand abortion on demand here at home, but they also want to make the United States the number one exporter of abortions overseas. Senator Leahy’s calls for bipartisanship ring hollow as he introduces bills that scrap several strong pro-life protections, including the Hyde Amendment, which has enjoyed broad bipartisan consensus for over four decades. Abortion is violence against the most innocent, not ‘health care,’ and Americans should never be forced to be complicit.
“These bills are a political liability for pro-abortion Democrats. We thank our pro-life Senate allies for holding the line against abortion extremism and working to ensure that the Hyde Amendment remains in effect.”
Seventy-seven percent of Americans oppose using taxpayer dollars to promote abortion overseas, and 58% oppose using taxpayer money to fund abortions in the United States.
Earlier this year SBA List launched a six-figure digital ad campaign exposing the pro-abortion extremism of Democrats for their opposition to Hyde. The campaign targets Senators Raphael Warnock (D-GA) and Mark Kelly (D-AZ), as well as vulnerable House Democrats up for re-election next year in competitive districts.
Learn more at sbalist.org/hyde.
SBA List is a network of 900,000 pro-life Americans nationwide, dedicated to ending abortion by electing national leaders and advocating for laws that save lives, with a special calling to promote pro-life women leaders.
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