WASHINGTON — President Obama signed legislation Dec. 17 allowing for local government funding of abortion in the District of Columbia.
The U.S. Senate passed the final legislative action Dec. 13. Senators voted 57–35 for the omnibus spending bill — a conglomeration of appropriations bills for multiple federal agencies — that, among other things, ends a longstanding ban on government funds for abortions in the country’s capital.
The House of Representatives approved the same measure in a 221–202 roll call Dec. 10.
The bill repeals the Dornan Amendment, which has barred federal and local funds for the District of Columbia from paying for abortions since 1996. The spending measure’s language says it prohibits federal funding of abortions in the district but permits local money to be used.
Pro-lifers, however, point out that language is meaningless because federal and local funds are combined for the district. As a result, the district’s government can avoid the ban simply by specifying as local the money used to underwrite abortions.
In a Dec. 11 letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Southern Baptist ethicist Richard Land urged opposing the spending bill.
Land, president of The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, told the Senate leaders the bill “injects radical social policies opposed by most Southern Baptists and millions of other Americans.”
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