Democrats now hold the majority in the House of Representatives and Nancy Pelosi is once again back in position as Speaker of the House.
In a late night vote yesterday, the Democrats passed a bill ending the partial government shutdown, and also directing more funds towards the abortion giant, Planned Parenthood. Shortly after taking office, Trump redirected funds away from funding the international arm of Planned Parenthood, by prohibiting federal taxpayer dollars from going towards any organizations that fund abortions internationally. Now, Democrats are seeking to return those same federal taxpayer dollars back to organizations who fund international abortions – including Planned Parenthood.
The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2019 repeals President Trump’s Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance policy, which stops U.S. taxpayer funding of the abortion industry overseas.
The House voted 241 to 190 for the bill with all Democrats voting for it and all but 7 Republicans voting against it.
In response, the White House released a statement of Administrative Position saying that if the bill is presented to President Donald Trump, he will veto it.
The statement said:
The Administration opposes passage of H.R. 21, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2019, providing appropriations for the fiscal year (FY) ending September 30, 2019, for the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Justice, Interior, State, Transportation, Treasury, and for other purposes. The Administration also opposes passage of H.J. Res. 1, providing appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) through February 8, 2019, and for other purposes.
It includes $700 million more than requested for the United Nations, including restoring funding for the United Nations Population Fund. The bill would also undermine the President’s Mexico City Policy (Presidential Memorandum of January 23, 2017), which prohibits the funding of foreign nongovernmental organizations that promote or perform abortions.
The bill does even more than fund abortion through Planned Parenthood. More from the statement from the Executive Office of President Trump:
The bill also would increase funding by $5 million for the United Nations Population Fund, to $37.5 million. Anti-abortion organizations oppose the program because they say it participates in coercive abortions and involuntary sterilizations.
Democrats plan to vote on two separate bills Thursday to fund the federal government, one of which will focus on homeland security as they refuse to meet Trump’s demands for $5 billion to fund a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico.
The bills face dim prospects in the GOP-controlled Senate. The federal government has faced a partial government shutdown for 12 days , and Democratic leaders announced Wednesday that they still had not been able to reach an agreement with Trump.
The Trump policy did not cut any other international funding to other organizations that actually supply women with quality healthcare. So redirecting the funds away from organizations directly funding abortions internationally leaves more funds for organizations that don’t exploit women by performing abortions for profit.
