Recent Senate votes remind us of the stakes in the 2008 Presidential election

The Senate's vote to end the "Mexico City" policy is a reminder that right now only a pro-life President's veto stops death for hundreds of thousands millions of unborn children in the Third World in upcoming years. See the article below.

It is a tragedy that the election of any Democratic candidate as well as of Republican Rudy Giuliani will result in groups like the International Planned Parenthood Federation receiving additional funds to eliminate poverty by eliminating the poor, but that's the reality.

U.S. Bishops: Senate Takes 1 Step Forward, 1 Back

Assess Votes on Abortion and Foreign Policy

WASHINGTON, D.C., SEPT. 11, 2007 (Zenit.org).- A spokeswoman for the U.S. bishops' pro-life committee welcomed one Senate vote while lamenting another.

Deirdre McQuade welcomed Monday's decision to maintain a longstanding federal law against any involvement in coercive abortion programs overseas.

But she expressed disappointment at last Thursday's vote to overturn the so-called Mexico City policy, which denies U.S. funds to organizations that perform and promote abortion as a method of family planning.

Both votes took place during debate on the State Department/Foreign Operations appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2008.

On Sept. 6, the Senate voted 48-45 to approve an amendment by Senator Sam Brownback to restore the Kemp-Kasten Amendment, deleted from the bill in committee.

Since 1985, this provision has denied U.S. funds to any organization or program that "supports or participates in the management of a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization."

But by a vote of 53-41, the Senate passed an amendment by Senator Barbara Boxer to overturn the Mexico City policy. An amendment offered by Senator Brownback to reinstate the policy was defeated.

McQuade said, "After witnessing their good sense on the Kemp-Kasten provision, I am extremely disheartened to see our Senators reject the Mexico City policy."

Veto

In a letter sent to senators before the votes, Cardinal Justin Rigali, archbishop of Philadelphia and chairman of the U.S. bishops' committee for pro-life activities, had urged senators to preserve both the Mexico City and Kemp-Kasten policies.

Without the Mexico City policy, the cardinal said, "abortion-promoting organizations will exploit their status as the conduits for U.S. aid to promote abortion to vulnerable women in the Third World."

Also before the votes, President George Bush reaffirmed his pledge to veto any appropriations bill that "weakens current federal policies and laws on abortion."

McQuade expressed her appreciation for the president's veto pledge: "We are very grateful to the president for his commitment to these basic, long-standing policies protecting both mother and child."

"We hope and expect," she concluded, "that due to his pledge, and the pledge by many members of Congress to uphold such a veto, the Mexico City Policy will be preserved in law this year."

Comments

[Eileen Peterson]

Please, whoever can take one hour during the period of seven days for seven weeks, please do so (40 Days for LIFE) Just go to http://www.40daysforlife.com/about.cfm It is why we must pray that God intercedes for us especially in POLITICS. Other than the killing fields, that is where the greatest evil is taking place. Who carries the greater burden of sin, the soldiers who placed the nails in the hands of our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Crucified, or the politician that ok's it, Pontius Pilate?