Congress Restores D.C. Abortion Funding

The $1.1 trillion spending bill the Senate passed yesterday includes major increases in funding for abortions.

The bill, which was sent to President Obama’s desk, reverses the Dornan Amendment, a 13-year-old ban on direct funding of abortions in the District of Columbia.

The bill, passed on a 57-35 mostly party-line vote, also appropriates $648.5 million for international family-planning funding, an increase of $103 million from Fiscal Year 2009, without the constraints of the Mexico City Policy to prevent these dollars from being provided to organizations that promote and perform abortions, LifeNews.com reported here.

The bill also increases funding for the United Nations Population Fund to $55 million, a $5 million increase from FY09. The U.N. agency has been criticized for cooperating with Chinese population-control officials. It recently released a report suggesting that the alleged climate-change problem can be addressed by reducing the world’s population.