WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — A spending bill for the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and Education includes a number of pro-life and pro-family provisions.
House Resolution 5894 is awaiting a vote after passing out of committee before Thanksgiving. It is one of the first big tests for new Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and his ability to pass pro-life and pro-family bills.
“The bill would also eliminate federal Title X grants to family planning clinics including Planned Parenthood,” Axios reported.
It would also prevent Medicare and Medicaid from paying for so-called “gender transitions” for individuals who struggle with gender confusion, according to the analysis from Axios. The legislation would also prohibit funding post-graduation medical training unless the program made abortion training “opt-in” versus “opt-out.”
Republican U.S. Rep. Roy Aderholt of Alabama, the chief sponsor of the legislation, said the bill would “prohibits funding for programs focused solely on diversity, equity, and inclusion, and it eliminates funding for Planned Parenthood and other controversial grantees.”
“It also protects religious freedom and values by stopping this Administration’s regulation that would require schools to allow biological boys to compete against girls in women’s sports programs, and prohibiting any federal funding from going toward enforcing gender identity politics or social, hormonal, and surgical interventions to look like the opposite sex,” according to a statement in support.
The bill also protects the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits direct payment of abortions from taxpayer funds, and would also prohibit funding for President Joe Biden’s executive orders to expand the killing of preborn babies in the wake of the Dobbs decision.
“The bill maintains the longstanding Hyde amendment to ensure that taxpayer funds are not used for abortion-on-demand, and that no one is forced to participate in an abortion or refer for one under federal programs,” Rep. Aderholt stated. “The bill also makes sure that taxpayer funds are not used to circumvent state laws restricting access to abortion and ensures that federal research funds are not used on human fetal tissue obtained from an elective abortion.”
He also praised the legislation for prohibiting funds from going into dangerous gain-of-function research that has been linked to COVID-19. The bill also prohibits funds from going to EcoHealth Alliance. The group is closely tied to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where it is believed the coronavirus leaked from.
Some liberal Republicans are reportedly balking at the legislation, including Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, who opposes the provisions to defund abortion provisions. He said those parts “have no place in any of these bills — zero,” according to Politico.
The White House is also in opposition.
It stated on Nov. 13:
The draft bills also include numerous new, partisan policy provisions with devastating consequences including harming access to reproductive healthcare, threatening the health and safety of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex (LGBTQI+) Americans, endangering marriage equality, hindering critical climate change initiatives, and preventing the Administration from promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion.
The White House said the bill “puts radical right-wing politics over the needs of the American people by eliminating consequential programs Americans rely on every day and instead seeks to forcibly inflict deeply unpopular policies with poison pill riders.”
The legislation will have to pass and be reconciled with similar Senate spending bills that do not promote a pro-life, pro-family agenda.
Speaker Johnson has drawn praise from conservatives for his pro-life, pro-family stances. He has been critical of the LGBT agenda and has supported legislation to restrict abortion. Terry Schilling of the American Principles Project called Johnson “a stalwart conservative and pro-family champion during his time in the House.”
He took over the role in October after a handful of Republicans along with Democrats ousted Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy.
Readers who want to share their support for H.R. 5894 can look up contact information for their elected officials here.