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House OK's Unrestricted Family Planning Funds Abroad

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WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, Feb. 13) -- In a victory for abortion rights activists, the House voted today to approve funds for overseas family planning programs without any restrictive anti-abortion language.

The vote was 220-209, with 44 Republicans joining 175 Democrats (and an Independent) to release $385 million frozen since last fall. An alternative bill forbidding U.S. funds from being used by groups that perform or promote abortions in foreign countries -- the so-called Mexico City policy -- was defeated.

"By giving women the access to health services they so desperately need during their childbearing years, we will help prevent thousand of maternal deaths," declared Rep. Susan Molinari (R-N.Y.) during floor debate.

With the Senate expected to approve the House language as well, family planning organizations were declaring victory.

"The House has listened to the voices of the three-quarters of Americans who support the use of foreign assistance funds for voluntary family planning in poor countries," Population Action International official Victoria Markell told The Associated Press.

The freeze on the money has been in place since last fall when President Bill Clinton threatened to veto the entire fiscal 1997 budget if the Mexico City language was attached. In a legislative minuet, lawmakers agreed to remove the language but froze the funds until July 1.

That agreement allowed the date to be moved up to March 1 if the president found, as he did, that further delay would create "a rise in unintended pregnancies and maternal deaths and a tragic recourse to unsafe and unsanitary methods to terminate those pregnancies." Today's vote upheld the president's finding.


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