EDITORIAL

RI Congressmen ignore truth, vote against life

Posted

One of the most absurd ideas to emerge from the abortion debate is that the killing of an unborn child is health care.

The U.S. House of Representatives saw beyond this manipulation of the truth by the abortion industry and their allies in the U.S. Congress and thankfully passed the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act” last week by a vote of 251-175. This is just one step on the road to truly protecting human life in the United States as it makes permanent in the law what has been a policy for over 30 years. In addition to defunding of the deliberate destruction of human life, the bill also protects the conscience rights of health care providers who object to being involved in the practice of abortion.

Abortion is not health care. It is a ghastly procedure that ends the life of an unborn child through suction, dismemberment or chemical poisoning. U.S. taxpayers should never be forced to finance this human rights abuse. The “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act” not only will stop public tax dollars from paying for abortion but also save lives. In fact, the pro-abortion Alan Guttmacher Institute research has demonstrated that policies that prevent tax-payer funded abortion actually prevent 25% or more of the abortions that would otherwise occur among the covered population.

The Republican majority who passed the Act was joined by 16 pro-Democrats but sadly so-called pro-life Congressman Jim Langevin was not among them. Instead he joined with ultra-liberal Congressman Cicciline and other far-left members of Congress in voting against the act that would prevent tax dollars from funding abortion. The “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act” now moves on to the U.S. Senate for consideration. We thank the 251 members of the U.S. House of Representatives who passed this timely bill and we urge all Rhode Islanders who truly respect human life to contact Senators Reed and Whitehouse and urge they support its passage. Without a doubt, the good Senators need to be reminded once again that abortion is not health care and should never be funded with our tax payer dollars, a truism sadly forgotten by Congressmen Cicciline and Langevin.