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NRL News Senate Adopts NRLC-Backed Vitter Amendment, 52-42 WASHINGTON (March 4, 2008)—In an important pro-life victory, the U.S. Senate has adopted an NRLC-backed amendment that would permanently prohibit coverage of abortion in federally funded health programs for American Indians. The win occurred on February 26, during consideration of a lengthy bill (S. 1200) to rewrite the existing laws that govern Indian health programs. The Senate voted 52 to 42 to adopt an amendment, offered by Senator David Vitter (R-La.), which would permanently prohibit these programs from providing abortions, except to save the life of the mother, or in cases of rape and incest. The Indian health legislation will next be taken up in the House of Representatives, probably during March or April. Pro-life Congressman Joe Pitts (R-Pa.) is prepared to lead a fight to win House approval of the same pro-life provision that was adopted in the Senate. Following the Senate vote, NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson commented, “We commend Senator Vitter for his leadership in attempting to close the door to future federal funding of abortion in federal Indian health programs. Now we have our work cut out for us in the House of Representatives, where we expect the Democratic leadership to try hard to block enactment of this pro-life language.” The federal government funds a number of health programs for American Indians, which cover over two million persons. During the 1970s, the federal Indian Health Service paid for abortion on demand in these programs. The funding of abortions has been blocked since the early 1980s, but this pro-life policy has depended on annual renewal of a pro-life provision to an annual appropriations bill (the “Hyde Amendment”). In contrast, the Vitter-Pitts Amendment, if enacted into law, would “codify” the pro-life policy—that is, it would permanently prohibit the providing of abortions in Indian health programs, whether or not the Hyde Amendment is renewed in any given year. “The federal government should not use taxpayer dollars to pay for acts that so many Americans find to be soundly abhorrent,” Senator Vitter said after the vote. “This amendment provides a real and permanent assurance that federal funds cannot be used for abortions.” Forty-three Republicans and nine Democrats voted for the Vitter Amendment. Three Republicans, 37 Democrats, and two independents voted against it. Of the six senators who were absent, three were considered to be supporters of the amendment, including Sen. John McCain (R-Az.), who was one of four cosponsors of the Vitter Amendment. (The complete Senate roll call appears on page 17 of this issue.) Barrett Duke, vice president for public policy of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, hailed the passage of the amendment. “I hope the American Indian community sees in this restriction our commitment to honor the sanctity of every American Indian life in the same way that we seek to honor the sanctity of life throughout the rest of the United States and the world,” Duke said. However, Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, criticized the Vitter Amendment and called it a “political tactic.” The National Network of Abortion Funds issued a statement which denounced “the Vitter and Hyde Amendments and all restrictive legislation that undermines a woman’s ability to make her own decisions about childbearing and her health.” |