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Posted on 11/11/2001 8:18:57 PM PST by MHGinTN

From: The Pro-Life Infonet Weekly
Subject: Pro-Life Update on Life Issues Before Congress
Source: National Right to Life; November 8, 2001

Washington, DC -- Pro-abortion senators have run up against a brick wall in recent attempts to weaken or repeal several important pro-life policies. The White House has given notice that bills that contain language that would erode pro-life policies will face vetoes by President Bush if they reach his desk.

The pro-abortion challenges have emerged in recent weeks during congressional consideration of the 13 appropriations bills that provide funding for all government agencies for fiscal year 2002.

In passing this year's crop of appropriations bills, the House of Representatives has included all of the pro-life provisions ("riders") that were originally enacted in past years. It has been a different story in the Senate, however, where so far there have been attempts on four different appropriations bills to roll back pro-life policies.

Embryo Research and Cloning
Of special concern to pro-life forces is the Health and Human Services (HHS) appropriations bill. As approved by the House on October 11, the bill extends a crucial pro-life law called the "Dickey Amendment."
Originally enacted in 1996, the Dickey Amendment prohibits federal funding of "research in which" human embryos are harmed. Unfortunately, in the Senate the HHS bill is managed by two of the senators who most zealously advocate research that requires destruction of human embryos -- Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), who are the chairman and ranking Republican, respectively, on the appropriations subcommittee that oversees the bill. In mid-October, Harkin and Specter included language in their version of the HHS bill to substantially weaken the Dickey Amendment by authorizing federal funding of stem cell research using any human embryos deemed to be "in excess of clinical need."
On October 30, the White House issued a letter stating that President Bush was strongly opposed to altering the Dickey Amendment, "which for years has ensured that the federal government observes important ethical boundaries at the same time that it provides support for scientific research." Therefore, "the President's senior advisors would recommend that he veto the bill" unless the weakening language was dropped, the letter warned.
Meanwhile, as the full Senate prepared to take up the HHS appropriations bill in late October, pro-life Senator Sam Brownback (R-Ks.) said that he wished to offer several embryo-related amendments, including an amendment to ban all human cloning and another amendment to ban the creation of human embryos specifically to be used in research.
Specter, in turn, threatened to offer "second-degree" amendments to nullify the Brownback amendments. It appeared that this array of amendments might entangle the Senate in days or weeks of debate, so Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) pressed hard to convince senators on both sides to set aside the controversial issues until another day.
On November 1, a deal was struck under which the weakening Specter-Harkin provision was dropped from the bill. In return, Brownback also dropped his amendments to the bill. As part of the deal, Daschle promised that he will allow the Senate to vote directly on proposals by both Brownback and Specter next February or March.
"This deal is a positive development in two respects," explained National Right to Life Federal Legislative Director Douglas Johnson.
"First, the strong response from the White House and Senator Brownback forced Specter and Harkin to temporarily drop their attempt to authorize federal funding of embryo-killing stem cell research.
Second, for the first time, Sen. Brownback has an assurance from Majority Leader Daschle that the Senate will be permitted to vote on legislation to ban human cloning --legislation that the House passed by a large margin on July 31." Johnson added, "Our job now is to work hard to ensure that when the Senate takes up the human cloning issue in a few short months, it votes to ban the cloning of human embryos, We can be sure that the powerful Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) will be spending a lot of money between now and then to try to convince senators and the public that mass producing human embryos in order to use them in lethal medical research is a good thing."

Mexico City Policy
Immediately after becoming president, George W. Bush used his executive authority to reinstate the so-called "Mexico City Policy."
This is a crucial pro-life policy, originally enforced by President Reagan and the first President Bush, under which U.S. foreign aid for overseas "family planning" programs is denied to private organizations that perform abortions or promote the legalization of abortion, even if they use non-U.S. funds to do so.
Last spring, the House narrowly turned back an amendment to nullify the Mexico City Policy.
However, key pro-abortion senators, led by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), added language to the foreign operations appropriations bill to nullify the pro-life policy. The bill passed the Senate on October 24, without a separate vote on the abortion-related provision. The White House issued a letter stating the bill would be vetoed unless the pro-abortion language is dropped during an upcoming House-Senate conference committee.
According to press reports, the point was driven home by pro-life House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Il.) at a personal meeting with Congressman Jim Kolbe (R-Az.), who chairs the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign Operations.
Although Kolbe personally opposes the Mexico City Policy, after the meeting he told reporters that in view of the veto threat, the pro-abortion provision was likely to be dropped in the conference committee.

Federal Employees
Senate appropriators also dropped a provision from the Treasury-Postal appropriations bill that prohibits coverage of most abortions by federal employees' health insurance plans.
On October 11, the White House issued a letter warning that "the President's senior advisors would recommend" a veto of the bill unless the conference committee on the bill restored the longstanding ban. The conference committee complied, and the final version of the bill approved on November 1 continued the pro-life policy.

Bureau of Prisons
Senate appropriators dropped longstanding pro-life provisions from another appropriations bill, funding Justice Department programs. The provisions prohibit funding of abortion by the federal Bureau of Prisons, and protect the right of Bureau staff to refuse to participate in arranging abortions.
On October 23, the White House issued a letter that said the President's senior advisors would recommend a veto unless the provisions are restored in conference committee. In view of this threat, there is little doubt that upcoming conference committee will retain the pro-life provisions.
Congress will remain in session until at least late November, and possibly for much of December as well, despite earlier hopes for adjournment in October.

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