NEW YORK (ABP) — Democrats in the United States Senate are calling an abortion-reduction initiative a strong assertion of their “moral authority in a whole lot of areas.”
That's according to Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), who helped lead the Nov. 7 approval of the “reducing the need for abortions” initiative in the Labor-HHS Appropriations Bill Conference Report. The initiative devotes almost $615 million in increased funding over 2007 for pregnancy prevention, contraception and family support programs — a 5 percent increase. A total of $1.3 billion will be spent on such programs in 2008.
DeLauro spoke to reporters Nov. 8 along with Joel Hunter, the well-known pastor of Northland Church near Orlando, Fla.; Jim Wallis, CEO of Sojourners; Jon O'Brien, president of Catholics for a Free Choice; and fellow congressman Tim Ryan (D-Ohio).
It was an admittedly unlikely group that partnered to work on the bill but an effective one, Hunter said.
“I just want to say I'm just absolutely thrilled to be making progress with people who have traditionally been at least categorized as enemies,” the one-time president-elect of the Christian Coalition said. “This is what America is all about — people with differences being able to work together. This is a good example of everybody wins.”
The initiative will aid entities devoted to teen-pregnancy prevention, abstinence education, adoption awareness, after-school programs, and child care for new parents attending college. Government programs that stand to benefit from the increased funding include Title X, Healthy Start, Job Corps Child Centers and Head Start.
DeLouso and Ryan said that by explicitly highlighting the need for reducing abortions in America, the bill emphasizes prevention of unintended pregnancies and support for pregnant women and new families.
“Our budget that we vote on here represents our values, and we're saying loud and clear that the Democratic Party wants to reduce the need for abortion and put our money where our mouth is,” Ryan said. “It's a much different approach than in past years.”
Others said the fact that the funds will help encourage women to carry their pregnancies to term — and provide support once the baby is born — is a step in the right direction.
“Pro-choice people get to help people make good on their choices and be free to do that,” Hunter said. “I love what the Democratic Party is doing here. I just think it's fantastic, and that's really saying something because I'm probably part of the very conservative evangelical branch, just right of Attila the Hun.”
Wallis, an evangelical writer and political activist, said his involvement with the initiative came from his desire to “change the conversation on abortion.” There's common ground around the country among people who want to stop using abortion as a polarizing issue or as a way to leverage votes, he said: “Abortion has been the third wheel in American politics for too long.”
According to the Associated Press, the Labor-HHS bill is the largest of the 12 annual spending bills and likely to start a “veto battle” with President Bush over almost every domestic agency. Bush so far has declined Democratic efforts at negotiation, advocates said.
Bush has threatened to veto the bill, which includes $150.7 billion in discretionary spending, because it exceeds his request for discretionary spending by $9.8 billion.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told an AP reporter that in passing the bill, “Democrats in Congress will say that the president doesn't care about children or education or health research. … The facts demonstrate the president's strong and consistent commitment to children, education and health research. And the American people are smart enough to know that there is no such thing as a free lunch.”
Democrats disagreed.
“The bottom line is we get it done in this bill,” Ryan said. “We don't get it done to the extent that we want, but this is a clear, new direction. … You're going to see a reduction in abortions.”
The abortion-reduction package contains many of the core provisions of the Reducing the Need for Abortions and Supporting Parents Act (H.R. 1074), which was introduced by Ryan and DeLauro in 2006.
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