White House threatens veto over abortion

By Tom Strode - Sep 30, 2004 - comment

The Bush administration has warned the Senate the President will veto a foreign aid bill if abortion-funding measures are not removed before it reaches his desk, according to LifeNews.com.

The White House sent a letter to the Senate saying the foreign operations legislation for next year is unacceptable because it includes language overturning a Bush-supported policy that bars U.S. funds to international organizations that perform abortions or lobby foreign governments to liberalize their abortion laws. That rule, known as the Mexico City policy, was first issued by President Reagan in 1984 and reinstituted by Bush in 2001. President Clinton rescinded the policy during his administration.

The letter also said Bush opposed language in the legislation that would block him from directing funds away from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), LifeNews reported. For three consecutive years, the Bush administration has refused to send congressionally approved funds to the UNFPA, finding the agency cooperates with China’s coercive population control program, which includes forced abortion and sterilization.

Under the 1985 Kemp-Kasten amendment, U.S. family planning money is not to go to any entity that, as determined by the President, “supports or participates in the management of a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization.” The State Department announced in July it would not send $34 million designated for the UNFPA. Bush plans to redirect those funds to his “initiative to combat the trafficking of women and children,” according to LifeNews.

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