Should American taxpayers be forced to fund a practice they find morally repulsive or morally unacceptable in most cases?
The issue in question is abortion on demand. The Republicans in the House of Representatives who voted to pass the No Taxpayer Funding of Abortion Act believe in protecting American taxpayers from being forced to fund abortion with their federal tax dollars.
“The bill would establish a permanent, government-wide prohibition on federal taxpayer funding of abortion and health benefits plans that include coverage of abortion, except in cases of rape, incest, or when the life of the mother is in danger,” Heritage Action for America explains in a key vote in favor of the bill.
Several House Democrats adamantly oppose this common-sense bill, however, and after the bill’s passage were vocal in their condemnations of the Republicans who passed it.
Nancy Pelosi said a vote for this bill revealed Republicans’ “disrespect for the judgment of women.”
What about the women whose judgment tells them that that their hard-earned taxpayer dollars, confiscated by the federal government, shouldn’t be used – even remotely – to fund the killing of children in the womb?
Mrs. Pelosi clearly is not speaking for those women.
According to Gallup, 58 percent of Americans say abortion should be illegal in all circumstances or legal in only a few circumstances (20 percent and 38 percent, respectively). What’s more, 57 percent of women lean pro-life, saying abortion should be illegal in all circumstances or legal in only a few circumstances (20 percent and 37 percent, respectively).
Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) made a remark about the bill that proves her even farther from understanding the desires of roughly half of the women in America. She said:
If we were to demand that every man having a vasectomy would not be allowed to do it during child-bearing age, that would be as stupid as what we are going through here.
What?
There’s a lot that can be said about Slaughter’s remark, but suffice it to say, her analogy is unhelpful.
The bill does not outlaw abortion. It makes “demands” of no one. It protects American taxpayers by prohibiting federal funding of abortion procedures and by prohibiting “federal funds from being used for any health benefits coverage that includes coverage of abortion.”
Perhaps, following in Nancy Pelosi’s footsteps, Mrs. Slaughter chose not to read the bill.
Republicans are not waging a “war on women” by passing the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act. Democrats, on the other hand, are waging a war on science and conscience protections, by trying to insist that taxpayers fund abortion on demand – a practice more than half the country, including women, opposes.
