With the government just one day away from shutting down, Congress continues to debate the budget.
Life advocates have been pushing lawmakers to support spending bills only if they contain four key provisions to: defund Planned Parenthood; reinstate the Mexico City Policy, which prevents federal funds from going to international groups that promote or perform abortions; defund the pro-abortion U.N. Population Fund; and stop government-funded abortions in Washington, D.C.
"A large majority of Americans, regardless of their view on abortion, believe that taxpayers should not be forced to pay for abortion," said Tony Perkins, president of FRC Action.
Unfortunately, the spending measure that passed in the U.S. House today defunds abortion in D.C., but fails to address the other pro-life priorities.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said "ideological matters" are the only problems in reaching a budget solution.
Ashley Horne, federal policy analyst at CitizenLink, said: "Now is the time to make a stand on taxpayer funding of abortion. Lawmakers should not back down and must not wait any longer. This issue is too important, and momentum is behind us."
Also today, the House Armed Services Committee held a hearing on the repeal of the policy referred to as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Military chiefs testified that it would take months of training before service members would be ready to implement changes.
In a letter to the committee, Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey, wrote: "I believe it is too early to say what the impact on implementation of the repeal of DADT will have on our morale, unit cohesion, good order, discipline, recruiting and retention in the Army."
By Jennifer Mesko
Source: CitizenLink