House Republicans are advancing legislation to prohibit taxpayer funding of abortions. H.R. 7 currently has at least 164 sponsors; you can read the text of the “No Taxpayer Funding For Abortion Act” here. As legislation goes, it isn’t particularly controversial, as polls consistently show that most Americans (in this CNN poll, 61%) oppose public funding of abortions.
But that doesn’t stop the Democratic Party from twisting the act beyond recognition in raising money from its uninformed faithful. Yesterday the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee sent out a fundraising email that began:
Subject: are you kidding me?
Reply-To:John —
House Republicans have finally released their jobs plan:
Actually, the House Republicans have passed several dozen measures intended to stimulate (or remove obstacles to) job creation, but not one has seen the light of day in Harry Reid’s Senate. The Democrats never acknowledge this, instead alleging or implying the opposite of the truth.
According to Republican Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, denying women’s rights to make their own health care decisions “very much promotes job creation.” Are you kidding me?
In Democrat Speak, if the federal government doesn’t pay for abortions, it is “denying women’s rights to make their own health care decisions.” I am going to have surgery on my achilles tendon next month. The federal government won’t pay for it. Does that deny me the right to make my own health care decisions? The Democrats’ characterization is nuts; on the other hand, the low-information voters who receive the Democrats’ emails probably have no idea what the proposed legislation actually says.
But is the No Taxpayer Funding For Abortion Act really being proposed as a job creation measure? Of course not. But, responding to the criticism that the bill won’t do anything to create jobs–which is completely immaterial to its purpose–Chairman Goodlatte ventured the opinion that having children, rather than aborting them, helps to create jobs:
[H]aving a growing population and having new children brought into the world is not harmful to job creation. It very much promotes job creation for all the care and services and so on that need to be provided by a lot of people to raise children.
In my opinion, both the question and Goodlatte’s answer were rather silly. But so what? Dumber things are said in virtually every committee hearing held in Washington. Nevertheless, desperate for distractions from the Obama administration’s many failures and scandals, Democrats have gone ballistic over Goodlatte’s innocuous two sentences.
Right now, Rep. Goodlatte and his all-male Republican Judiciary committee members are fast-tracking a bill that could force rape survivors to prove their cases to the IRS in order to have their abortion covered by insurance.
The legislation provides exceptions for abortions arising out of rape or incest, or where the mother’s life is threatened. Having read the proposed statute, I am not sure what the Democrats are talking about here. Certain provisions of the statute do refer to tax treatment of insurance premiums, but if the Democrats are trying to suggest that the legislation will prevent abortions from being covered by health insurance, that is plainly false. The Act states, in part:
Nothing in this chapter shall be construed as prohibiting any individual, entity, or State or locality from purchasing separate abortion coverage or health benefits coverage that includes abortion so long as such coverage is paid for entirely using only funds not authorized or appropriated by Federal law….
The DCCC continues:
I’ve had enough of it. Will you join us to get 100,000 strong standing against the radical anti-woman agenda?
The “radical anti-woman agenda” that is supported by 60% of Americans.
Click here to automatically add your name and stand up for protecting women’s rights >>
The right to make taxpayers pay for their abortions.
This much is clear: House Republicans have doubled-down on their War on Women for 2014.
This much is clear: the Democrats have doubled down on their insane “war on women” theme, which they think helped them in 2012.
Instead of passing jobs legislation, or extending unemployment benefits, or raising the minimum wage, House Republicans are trying to turn the IRS into abortion auditors. It’s hard to believe how off-kilter Republican priorities really are.
As noted above, House Republican have passed several dozen job creation measures. Both extending unemployment benefits and raising the minimum wage will help to keep unemployment high.
Call them out:
http://dccc.org/stand-up-for-womens-rights
Thanks for your support.
Rep. Diana DeGette
Pro-Choice Caucus Co-Chair
Ah yes, Diana DeGette: you may not remember how she embarrassed herself by introducing gun control legislation which was based on an utter failure to understand how firearms work. In this case, I am pretty sure she knows what the No Taxpayer Funding For Abortion Act actually says. But when the Democrats are fundraising, truth is always the first casualty.
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