Do you want your tax dollars used to fund abortions within the United States? Currently the Hyde Amendment prohibits taxpayer-funding of abortion in most of the United States, but the sovereign territories of Indian nations within the U.S. are exempt from this provision. AdvanceUSA has learned that Senator David Vitter (R-LA) intends to propose an amendment to the Indian Health Care Improvement Act (S. 1200) which would codify a longstanding policy against funding abortions with taxpayer-funds from the federal Indian Health Services (IHS). The amendment would prohibit federal funding for abortions except to save the life of the mother or in cases of rape or incest of a minor. The Vitter amendment could be considered immediately when the Senate reconvenes on January 22, which is interestingly enough the date for the March for Life and the 35th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade.
Call both your senators today and urge them to support the Vitter amendment to S. 1200!
Excerpt from LifeNews story:
According to Douglas Johnson, the director of legislation for the National Right to Life Committee, the IHS is funded through the separate Interior appropriations bill. As a result, it has never carried the Hyde amendment and the bill funded abortions well after the Hyde amendment was first enacted in 1976.
The Reagan Administration curbed the practice administratively in 1982, as a temporary fix, Johnson said. In 1988, Congress said that the Hyde amendment would apply to the IHS bill.
Johnson said the Vitter amendment is important to make sure that the abortion funding limits become federal law.
Should a pro-abortion president occupy the White House and abortion advocates control Congress, there is nothing that could stop them from changing the current regulations unless a federal law prohibiting the funding is in place.