National Right to Life Criticizes Passage of Pro-Abortion House Appropriations Package

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The US House of Representatives voted 224-189 along party lines last week to pass the State, Foreign Operations, Agriculture, Rural Development, Interior, Environment, Military Construction, and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act. National Right to Life released a statement criticizing the House for passing this bill, which serves to promote abortion globally by bypassing or overturning pro-life policies of the past.

"National Right to Life issued a letter sent to members on July 22nd, urging representatives to vote against the legislation," the press release reads. "H.R. 7608 effectively overturns the Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance (PLGHA) policy, weakens the Kemp-Kasten Amendment, and increases funding for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). National Right to Life (NRLC) will be adding the vote on the bill to its scorecard for the 116th Congress."

The PLGHA program requires  private organizations to sign contracts promising that they will not perform abortions (except to save the mother’s life or in cases of rape or incest), lobby to change the abortion laws of host countries, or otherwise “actively promote abortion as a method of family planning.” If they refuse to sign such a contract, they cannot receive funding from the US government.

By weakening the Kemp-Kasten Amendment and increasing funding to the UNFPA, H.R. 7608 additionally weakens the US President's ability to deny “population assistance” funds to organizations or programs that promote “coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization.”

“Abortion groups and their allies are willing to trample the laws of sovereign nations and place women and their children in harm’s way— all in an effort to create a global ‘right’ to abortion,” said National Right to Life President Carol Tobias.

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