by Kathleen Gilbert
WASHINGTON, D.C., December 1, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A bill that pro-life leaders feared could be used to fund abortion with federal dollars has been amended to exclude the procedure, and has passed the House of Representatives with the restrictions intact.
Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) helped secure a new section added to the “Women Veterans Bill of Rights,” HR 5953, which explicitly referenced a section of the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations disallowing coverage of abortion and other procedures such as in-vitro fertilization and gender “alteration.”
Smith said he was “pleased” that the bill as introduced by Veterans Affairs Committee chair Bob Filner (D-CA) “makes absolutely clear that abortion is not health care under this bill and so-called abortion rights are not implied by any of the rights specified in the legislation.”
The original text of the bill caused concern among pro-lifers on Capitol Hill by conferring upon female military veterans the “right” to access a “Department of Veterans Affairs primary care provider” capable of offering “gender-specific” and “preventive” health care needs.
The language was thought to leave open an interpretation requiring the government to make abortionists and their services available at every Veterans Affairs health care facility.
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