The House voted Wednesday to ban teaching health centers from using federal money to teach doctors how to perform abortions, the latest in a series of anti-abortion measures pushed by the Republican majority.
-- From "House bans funds for teaching abortion techniques" by Jim Abrams, Associated Press 5/25/11
The proposal was presented as an amendment to the latest of several GOP bills to restrict funding for the health care act that was enacted last year. This bill gives Congress control over spending for a program to encourage health centers to provide training to medical residents. The amendment applies to funding in that grant program.
The Foxx amendment passed 234-182 despite the objections of some Democrats that it would prevent health centers from teaching a basic medical technique that can be critical to saving a woman's life during emergencies.
The Foxx amendment and the overall bill to restrict the health care act both are likely to die in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
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From "U.S. House votes to prohibit discrimination against pro-life doctors in new medical education program, 234-182" posted at National Right to Life 5/25/11
The amendment pertains to one of the many new programs created by the sweeping health care restructuring law enacted in 2010 — the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” (PPACA), often referred to as “ObamaCare.” The program provided guaranteed funding — $230 million over the first five years — for grants to “teaching health centers” (THCs) for graduate-level training in certain “primary care” fields of medicine, including obstetrics and gynecology. The new program was targeted to “community-based” health centers, including federally funded community health centers and family planning clinics.
The bill brought to the House floor by the House Republican leadership, H.R. 1216, would not abolish the new medical education program, but it would remove it from the realm of “mandatory” funding, meaning that funding level would be set during the regular annual appropriations process. To this bill, Rep. [Virginia] Foxx offered an amendment to prohibit any medical center that receives funds from the program from discriminating against any doctor, nurse, or other health care provider — for example, a medical resident — on grounds that the provider refused to “provide, pay for, provide coverage of, or refer for abortions.”
“The reaction of Planned Parenthood and NARAL to the Foxx Amendment makes it crystal clear that they want the federal taxpayer to fund training of the next generation of abortionists,” said NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson. “In fact, pro-abortion activists are also trying to make it impossible to become certified in and to practice in some medical fields without participating in providing abortions. Stronger federal anti-discrimination laws are needed to counter these efforts, especially since the Obama Administration has severely weakened enforcement of the existing protective laws.”
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