Abortion Clause added to Spending Bill

Gotta handed to the religious zealots and repugs, they don't let any grass grow under their feet. These guys do their "best" work at midnight. It's gonna be a long, long four years.

November 20, 2004
Negotiators Add Abortion Clause to Spending Bill
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG and CARL HULSE

ASHINGTON, Saturday, Nov. 20 - House and Senate negotiators have tucked a potentially far-reaching anti-abortion provision into a $388 billion must-pass spending bill, complicating plans for Congress to wrap up its business and adjourn for the year.

The provision may be an early indication of the growing political muscle of social conservatives who provided crucial support for Republican candidates, including President Bush, in the election.

House officials said Saturday morning that the final details of the spending measure were worked out before midnight and that the bill was filed for the House vote on Saturday.

The abortion language would bar federal, state and local agencies from withholding taxpayer money from health care providers that refuse to provide or pay for abortions or refuse to offer abortion counseling or referrals. Current federal law, aimed at protecting Roman Catholic doctors, provides such "conscience protection'' to doctors who do not want to undergo abortion training. The new language would expand that protection to all health care providers, including hospitals, doctors, clinics and insurers.

"It's something we've had a longstanding interest in," said Douglas Johnson, a spokesman for the National Right to Life Committee. He added, "This is in response to an orchestrated campaign by pro-abortion groups across the country to use government agencies to coerce health care providers to participate in abortions."

The provision could affect millions of American women, according to Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California, who warned Friday that she would use procedural tactics to slow Senate business to a crawl if the language was not altered.

see rest or article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/20/politics/20spend.html?oref=login&th

She won't fold on choice. I'm going to write her and give her my support.

slow business to a crawl in order to remove this unrelated peice of garbage the neocons attached to the spending bill.

If they think it's such a great idea, they have to introduce it separately and try to pass it on its own merits. Obviously, they can't do anything the open way.

They do their best work in the middle of the night - while the press and the American people are asleep. Reference The US Patriot Act - version agreed upon by both houses and then re-written in the middle of the night and voted on the first thing the next morning when the majority of the Congressmen had never actually read the changes. This is standard operating procedure for these guys. They are like the insurgents in Fallujah - sneak and attack, run back and hide, and then sneak and attack again.

And that's precisely why religion should be scrupulously kept out of politics: too many religions claim extreme privilege, and exempt themselves from the law due to their special status as morally better than others.

Fundies consider the law to be something to be careful of in order to avoid getting in trouble, but THEIR laws come from a higher source, and it's one that cannot be reproached.

It's scary how much denial people are in about these nuts. They'll try everything they can to restrict abortion and make it basically unavailable, and when there's a suit, it'll go to the Supremes. We're on the run now; it's a perfect time to get rid of Roe v. Wade.