Editor’s note. The following was sent out by the office of Pro-Life Rep. Chris Smith. The press conference will take place tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. at the House Visitors Center Studio B of the Radio and TV Gallery (Room HVC-117)

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Government funding for abortion, and legislative plans to stop it will headline a bipartisan press conference scheduled for Thursday, January 20. Reps. Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.), co-chairs of the Bipartisan Congressional Pro-Life Caucus, and Rep. Joe Pitts, Chairman of the Health Subcommittee on Energy and Commerce and the Values Action Team in the 112th Congress will host the press conference.

Rep. Chris Smith, co-chairman, Pro-Life Caucus	Pro-Life Rep. Joe Pitts, chairman, House Health Subcommittee

Specifically, the lawmakers will be discussing two bills prohibiting government funding for abortion. Both bills—the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act,” which will be introduced as H.R. 3, and the “Protect Life Act”—will be introduced on Thursday.

The “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act” will eliminate the need for numerous, separate, annual abortion funding prohibitions (riders) and ensure that no other program or agency is exempt from this important safeguard. The bill also codifies the conscience clause known as Hyde-Weldon.

The “Protect Life Act” will amend the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” (PPACA) to ensure there is no funding for abortion or abortion coverage. The law currently does not include a comprehensive prohibition on such funding. Instead the bill contains accounting gimmicks that explicitly allow funding for abortion coverage. The Obama Executive Order reiterates those accounting gimmicks. Without the “Protect Life Act,” PPACA will become the largest expansion of abortion funding since Roe v. Wade.