Photo credit: Chris Maddaloni/CQ Roll Call/Newscom
The House of Representatives next week will vote on a bill “to end once and for all taxpayer funding for abortion,” Majority Leader Eric Cantor said today in remarks at a rally in Washington, D.C., as part of the 41st annual March for Life.
The Virginia Republican, who decried what he called “the recent expansion of abortion coverage in Obamacare,” acknowledged that the ban on taxpayer funding isn’t likely to be passed by the Senate, much less signed by President Obama.
“But I can make you this promise: The people’s House will stand for life,” Cantor said, adding that it will be one more step toward the day when “every child in America will be protected by law and welcomed to life.”
Jeanne Monahan, who played host for the rally as president of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, introduced Cantor as “an ardent pro-lifer.” In the frigid cold, he joined other speakers in predicting, despite setbacks, eventual success for the pro-life cause in reversing the Supreme Court’s 1973 decision in Roe v Wade creating a right to abortion:
“The truth is, there is an inalienable right to life and this right extends to the unborn. This is not a political truth subject to the whims of man. It is a moral truth and was written, as one famous Virginian noted, by our Creator. … We cannot allow the opponents of life to continually weaken the moral fabric of our country.”
The bill headed to the House floor next week is the work of Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), co-chairman of the bipartisan Congressional Pro-Life Caucus for more than 25 years.
In his remarks at the rally, Smith said he mourned “the more than 56 million slain” by abortion since 1973 – “a death toll greater than the population of England.” He accused President Obama of using “stealth, deception and the coercive power of the state” to promote abortion on demand.
Although administration officials and others argue that no taxpayer funds are used for abortion under Obamacare, Smith said, in fact billions are funneled through insurance exchanges to provide “massive public funding of abortion.”
Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-MO), expressing gratefulness to the “brave birth mother” whose baby she and her husband adopted, assured the crowd: “Some pregnancies are unexpected, but no baby is unwanted.”
It’s time, Hartzler added, to “champion and encourage” mothers who choose adoption rather than abortion.
Only about 18,000 infant adoptions occur each year compared with 1.2 million abortions, or 64 abortions to every adoption, Monahan said.
“Abortion is anti-woman. In the name of ‘women’s health,’ we are being forced by our government to cover drugs and devices that can destroy life in its earliest stages,” Monahan told the marchers before introducing Cantor, adding:
“Truth is truth, freedom is freedom and life is life. … Together, we’re going to end abortion and we’re going to build a culture of life in the United States.”
This story was produced by The Foundry’s news team. Nothing here should be construed as necessarily reflecting the views of The Heritage Foundation.
