Pro-life groups oppose a Democrat spending bill on Thursday that increases money for abortion programs while including no increased border wall funding.
The House Democrat majority plans to vote on a spending bill that will end the partial government spending program. The spending bill includes a provision that repeals a provision instituted by President Donald Trump that would require foreign non-government organizations (NGOs) to assure that they will not “perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning.”
The stipulation, known as the Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance policy, used to be called the Mexico City policy, known by some critics as the “global gag rule.”
The Democrat bill increases the United Nations Population Fund by $5 million to $37.5 million. Pro-life groups contend that the program leads to coercive abortions and involuntary sterilizations.
The legislation also increases funding for the United Nations Populations Fund, which provides contraception and hopes to reduce childhood deaths. Trump ended American financing for the group because pro-life groups oppose its relationship with China, which discourages its citizens from having more than two children.
The legislation mirrors some of the provisions contained in the Senate Appropriations Committee spending bill, which passed through the committee unanimously. The bill does not include President Trump’s requested $5 billion in border wall funding.
Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, said that Democrats are “already trying to foist a radical pro-abortion agenda on the nation.”
“A strong majority of Americans oppose taxpayer funding of abortion,” Dannenfelser said.
The leader of the Susan B. Anthony List said that repealing Trump’s policy would make “taxpayers complicit in the exportation of abortion and destruction of countless unborn children around the world. This is unconscionable, and we oppose the bill in the strongest terms.”
The Democrat spending bill faces slim prospects of passing through the Republican-controlled Senate. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said he would only put a vote on the Chamber’s floor if President Trump endorsed the bill and it included border wall funding.
Matt Wolking, communications director for Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), tweeted on Thursday that Nancy Pelosi will not provide money to protect Americans from illegal immigrants; however, she will increase funding for abortion.
“Nancy Pelosi’s funding plan won’t provide a single dollar to protect Americans from being murdered by illegal immigrants,” Wolking wrote. “But it will provide $5 million dollars for a UN program that promotes abortion and the forced sterilization of people of color”: