Abortion-Funding Battle To Heat Up Again This Week

via Felicia Sonmez, The Washington Post

After months of focusing on economic rather than social issues, the House this week is poised to take up a measure that will bring the abortion-rights debate back to the floor for the first time since May.

On Friday, the House will consider H.R. 358, the “Protect Life Act.” The measure, introduced by Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Pa.), would prohibit federal funds from going toward any health care plan that covers abortion services; it also would block funding from being withheld from institutions that are opposed to providing abortions.

The bill is one of two abortion-related measures introduced by House Republicans in this Congress; the other is H.R. 3, the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act,” which passed the House in early May on a near-party-line vote.

As The Fix’s Rachel Weiner notes, social issues have been largely absent from the presidential campaign trail this cycle, a product of the strong focus placed by most voters on jobs and the country’s still-struggling economy.

Continue Reading at The Washington Post