Chris Smith: “I should also say that I share some of the frustration of my colleagues. This legislation is the result of a compromise.…”

“I should also say that I share some of the frustration of my colleagues. This legislation is the result of a compromise. As with every compromise, there are things in the bill I would have preferred not to have. The bill also omits some provisions I would have liked to see included. On balance, however, Chairman Livingston and our leadership have brought back a victory for the pro-life majority in the House, and a victory for the protection of unborn children. Our most significant victory is that the conference report does not include the Hatfield language, which was included in the Senate bill and would have effectively written a blank check to the international abortion industry. Last year the House voted several times to condition U.S. funding for population control activities on the Mexico City policy--a prohibition of funding for foreign organizations that perform or promote abortion. The House also voted to condition its support for the United Nations Population Fund [UNFPA] on an end to UNFPA support to the forced abortion policy of the People's Republic of China. The House provisions recognized that money is fungible. The fiction advanced by the other side--that international population control agencies can use bookkeeping devices to spend their money on abortions, and our money on everything else--ignores this reality.”