Dr. Susan Berry – March 4, 2021
As the Senate prepares to debate the COVID-19 Relief bill, Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) observed the bill provides $400 billion that contains no protections for ensuring it will not be used to fund elective abortion.
Daines tweeted a video of his review of some of the features of the measure, which passed the House Friday, referring to it as the “liberal wish list” of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (CA) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (NY).
“Here’s one that will get your blood pressure up,” said Daines, who heads the Senate Pro-Life Caucus. “$400 billion that has no protections to ensure we don’t have taxpayer dollars spent for abortions.”
He explained Democrats removed the language of the Hyde Amendment that has prohibited taxpayer funding of abortions in appropriation bills.
“$400 billion that could be used to fund abortions paid for by United States taxpayers,” the senator emphasized.
In a floor speech in the House prior to the vote on the bill, co-chair of the House Pro-Life Caucus, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), also called the exclusion of the Hyde Amendment “a radical departure from all previous COVID-19 relief laws,” and one that “mandates taxpayer funding of abortion-on-demand.”