House OKs Use of Taxpayer Dollars for Abortions in the Nation's Capital

Meredith Jessup | July 17, 2009 2:30 PM

The U.S. House of Representatives voted yesterday to pass H.R. 3170, the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act. Sounds like a relatively harmless piece of legislation, right? Think again.

Noticeably and purposefully absent from H.R. 3170 was the "Dornan Amendment"--a small provision included in the appropriations act since 1996 that prohibited the use of taxpayer dollars to fund abortions in the District of Columbia. Despite numerous attempts of pro-life congressmen to restore the ban, liberals were successful in blocking every attempt.

In his budget, President Obama had called for a repeal of the ban on the public funding of abortions, and the House Rules Committee voted to prohibit pro-life members from introducing the ban on the House floor for consideration before the final vote. According to Richard Land, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, the bill also eliminates the ban on government funds for "domestic partnership benefits in D.C. and removes the ban on taxpayer funding of efforts to legalize marijuana in D.C."

The Dornan Amendment may have been a small provision, but its purposeful exclusion represents big betrayal for America's taxpayers.