On the recordOctober 13, 2011
I'm actually one of the folks that read the bill before we passed it, and there are passages in the bill that do allow for Federal funding of abortion. What this bill does is it seeks to correct that language. The Hyde amendment clearly states that no Federal tax dollars can be used for abortion. At the time that the Hyde amendment was created, we really only had Medicaid to worry about; but with the vast changes in our lifestyles, other avenues have come forward for Federal funding of abortion to occur if we are not careful in the way we construct laws in this awesome body. Time and time again, the American public has said we're conflicted on the issue of abortion, but we're not conflicted about not using Federal funds to pay for it. Just in April of this year, 61 percent of respondents on a CNN poll said no Federal funding of abortion. What this bill does is what we should have done in March of 2010--not allow any Federal funds to be used to pay for abortion any time, any place in this health care bill. I urge my colleagues to pass this and correct the language that should have been done a year ago.
