Montana Sen. Steve Daines: ‘Shameful’ Senate Dems Allow Billions of Tax Dollars to Fund Abortions

Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), chair of the Senate Pro-Life Caucus, rebuked Democrats Saturday after they voted to pass President Joe Biden’s COVID relief bill allowing billions of American taxpayer dollars to be used to fund abortion on demand.

The bill allocates $400 billion which can be used to fund elective abortions.

While Daines worked to insert the longstanding Hyde Amendment into the measure, Senate Democrats blocked this provision that has been attached to spending bills for decades and bars taxpayer funds from being used to pay for abortions.

Commenting on the bill, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), said, “It’s about their left-wing agenda”:

Daines said, “Senate Democrats voted to allow billions of taxpayer dollars to be used to fund abortions and voted against applying a 44-year-old prohibition called the Hyde Amendment.”

Discussing past COVID relief bills, Daines commented:

We have had five bipartisan COVID relief packages and not one of them included any provisions that would undermine pro-life protections. Preventing taxpayer dollars from funding abortions is something a majority of Americans agree with. I’m very disappointed to see Senate Democrats use “COVID relief” to get away with their pro-abortion agenda.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a statement on Friday condemning taxpayer-funded abortions in the COVID relief plan.