By Samantha Kamman, Abortion Columnist
A $1 trillion spending bill recently passed the house in a 226-203 vote, and while the bill provides funding for various departments, it also intends to restore taxpayer funding that President Donald Trump cut from Planned Parenthood and other international abortion groups. The bill would also eliminate the Mexico City Policy, a pro-life measure that prohibits funding to groups that promote or provide abortions overseas. Keeping with most Republican presidents, Trump reinstated and expanded upon the policy, whereas Democratic presidents usually attempt to repeal it.
The international arm of Planned Parenthood was defunded by $100 million as a result of the Mexico City Policy, and tax dollars were also taken away from Marie Stopes International, a British-based abortion chain. In 2016, the International Planned Parenthood Federation performed more than 1 million abortions, all while receiving more than $27 million in U.S. government grants from 2015-2016. Democratic leaders are attempting to see that funding restored; however, it is unlikely the bill will pass the Republican-controlled senate.
Politicians have also begun to discuss overturning the Hyde Amendment, a bipartisan measure that prohibits federal funds being used to fund abortions except for cases of rape or threats to the mother’s life. But according to polls, most Americans do not want their tax dollars funding abortions. Hillary Clinton campaigned on this issue in 2016, and a Harvard University poll found only 36 percent of Americans were likely to support overturning the Hyde Amendment.
The same poll found voters making more than $75,000 a year were more likely to support forced taxpayer-funded abortions, with 45 percent being in favor. However, people making $25,000 a year or less are against it, with only 24 percent in favor. The group of people qualified for Medicaid-covered, taxpayer-funded abortion is the demographic most likely to oppose it. Still, presidential hopefuls such as Joe Biden have pledged to repeal the Hyde Amendment, forcing taxpayers to fund the termination of unborn lives.
