Posted on 03/02/2015 5:43:57 AM PST by HomerBohn
CNSNews.com) – Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) urged Secretary of State John Kerry this week to look into what she says is the misapplication of 42-year-old legislation that bans U.S. foreign aid from being spent on abortions.
“There has been, not on the part of the administration, but an issue surrounding the misinterpretation of the Helms Amendment that prohibits the use of funds ‘for the performance of abortion as a method of family planning,’” she told Kerry during a House Appropriations’ subcommittee hearing on Wednesday.
“But it’s been incorrectly implemented, essentially to become a total ban on funding for abortion.”
The Florida Democrat said she hated “to use the term ‘nuance,’ but there’s a difference between prohibiting abortion entirely and prohibiting its use as a method of family planning.”
She asked Kerry whether the “misinterpretation” had been addressed.
(Video at link)
As Kerry offered to investigate the matter, Wasserman Schultz interjected to stress that the situation “predates this administration,” to which Kerry replied, “I’m not taking it personally, I assure you.”
“I remember this debate, you know, when I was up here,” added Kerry, alluding to his 28-year Senate career. “I just want to find out exactly, because I’m not – I haven’t been part of any conversation that has examined some shortfall in it, so let me find out …”
Earlier Kerry told Wasserman Schultz that the administration evaluates the situation “in every single country, in every program where we are.”
“I’m not aware that there’s been a specific complaint that something is lacking or missing in that effort.”
In citing the 1973 Helms Amendment to foreign aid legislation, Wasserman Schultz only quoted part of it.
In full it reads: “No foreign assistance funds may be used to pay for the performance of abortion as a method of family planning or to motivate or coerce any person to practice abortions.”
The phrase “or to motivate or coerce any person to practice abortions” makes clear that the intent went beyond prohibiting funding abortion as a method of family planning.
(Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards and President Obama.)
Wasserman Schultz’ request to Kerry comes at a time when Planned Parenthood is pressing President Obama to change the way the amendment is implemented, arguing that it is being applied as a total ban on abortion, even in cases of incest, rape, and life endangerment.
“Ultimately, we must get rid of the Helms Amendment entirely, which will require congressional action,” Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards wrote in an op-ed last fall.
“In the meantime, the administration should take an important step to resolve this crisis today by implementing the policy correctly,” Richards said. “We can’t wait to help women who have been raped or been the victims of incest, and those facing life-threatening pregnancies.”
According to an article published by LifeNews.com, Richards in a recent fundraising email wrote that the president “can help solve this crisis with the stroke of his pen – and doing so would ensure that our foreign aid reaches the women who desperately need our help.”
“With 22,000 women dying annually from unsafe abortions, there is no time to waste and nothing that should be prioritized above saving their lives,” said the email, which was reportedly entitled, “A simple way to save lives.”
The goal of this evil regime is to spread more filth and perversion overseas now that this country is saturated with it.
The moronic zealot from Planned parenthood had the nerve to say that abortions "save lives".
Jesse Helms. How I miss him.
I wish we had a few more like him.
Somebody missed a good chance when the three little pigs shown in this article weren’t aborted.
“but there’s a difference between prohibiting abortion entirely and prohibiting its use as a method of family planning.”
Not to the baby that is killed.
Not content to kill just domestic children - DWS wants to export that atrocity overseas... and make US taxpayers fund it.
Jesse Helms. How I miss him. I wish we had a few more like him.
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Yes, I feel the same way. What I wouldn’t give for someone with his moral fortitude speaking to the lies of these degenerates.
So, it’s OK, for her and other liberals, to use the threat of deadly force to
make people pay for what they believe to be murder of the innocent?
I guess if murder of the innocent is OK, what’s wrong with putting a gun in someone’s face and making them pay for it?
Jesse was, without a doubt, a great man and a great American.
What in the world are the other reasons? Recreational abortion just because you like doing it? Intentional harvesting of those yummy, yummy embryonic stem cells? General population control rather than merely individual family planning?
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