With thousands of abortion protesters swarming the city in their annual
March for Life, Republicans muscled broadened abortion restrictions
through the House on Thursday after a GOP rebellion forced leaders into
an awkward retreat on an earlier version.
By a near party-line 242-179 vote, the House voted to permanently forbid
federal funds for most abortion coverage. The bill would also block tax
credits for many people and employers who buy abortion coverage under
President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.
A White House
veto threat and an uncertain fate in the Senate mean the legislation
has no realistic chance of becoming law. But on a day when crowds of
anti-abortion demonstrators stretched for blocks outside Capitol windows
— and hours after the embarrassing GOP stumble on another abortion
measure — Thursday's vote let party leaders signal that the Congress
they now command is at least trying to end abortion.
The GOP's passage of one bill and the abrupt derailment of another
forbidding most late-term abortions underscored the party's perilous
balancing act of backing abortion restrictions crucial to conservatives
while not alienating women and younger voters wary of such restrictions.
Obama, out West to promote his State of the Union economic agenda,
embraced the same 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion that
the protesters were vilifying.
He said the decision in the Roe v. Wade case "reaffirms a fundamental
American value: that government should not intrude in our most private
and personal family matters." He said the House-passed bill would
"intrude on women's reproductive freedom and access to health care and
unnecessarily restrict the private insurance choices that consumers have
today."
Republican House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio praised the marchers in a written statement that also seemed to acknowledge discord among Republicans.
"This march is part of a longer one, and our destination is clear: to
secure and protect the rights of every unborn child. When there is
disagreement, we should pause and listen closely. When there is
movement, we should rejoice, and the House's vote to ban taxpayer
funding of abortion is cause for doing so," he said.
Even so, the GOP sidetracking of the late-term abortion measure sparked grumbling from politically potent allies.
In a sharp statement that singled out Rep. Renee Ellmers, R-N.C., and
others, National Right to Life President Carol Tobias criticized GOP
dissenters on the late-term bill and warned, "Some of these lawmakers
may ultimately conclude that they were ill advised to sacrifice the
trust of their pro-life constituents so egregiously."
Ellmers, who has had a strong anti-abortion voting record, was among
those who had objected to portions of the late-term abortion bill. Her
spokeswoman, Blair Ellis, declined to comment.
Dozens of protesters visited her Capitol Hill office Thursday to protest her role in scuttling that measure.
On the House floor, a debate that has raged virtually every year for decades was emotional, as usual.
"Abortion is not health care. It's a brutal procedure that ends lives of unborn children," said Rep. Joseph Pitts, R-Pa.
"I urge my colleagues to stand with the hundreds of thousands of people
out on the Mall right now by voting for this bill," said House Majority
Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.
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