Today, the U.S. House of Representatives took a major step towards protecting the lives of millions of unborn children while also protecting their mothers by passing the bipartisan “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act of 2017” (H.R. 7) sponsored by Rep. Chris Smith (NJ-04), a pro-life champion in the House and defender of the Hyde Amendment for over three decades. Smith spoke on the floor during the debate. Click Here to read the Full Text of his Statement.  

     “Two million people who would have been aborted instead survived because public funds were unavailable to effectuate their violent demise, while their mothers benefited from prenatal health care and support,” said Smith. “Two million survivors have had the opportunity to live and enjoy the first and most basic of all human rights—the right to life.”

     More than twenty peer reviewed studies indicate that over two million lives have been saved since the Hyde Amendment was introduced in 1976, according to a report from late last year by the Charlotte Lozier Institute.

     “Polling consistently shows that a supermajority of Americans—61% according to a Marist poll released just yesterday--oppose taxpayer funding of abortion, and 8 in 10 Americans think laws can protect both the well-being of a woman and the health of her unborn child,” said Smith, co-chair of the Bipartisan Congressional Pro-Life Caucus. The Full Marist Poll can be Found Here.

     “Growing numbers of Americans are often shocked to learn that the methods of abortion include dismemberment of a child’s fragile body including decapitation and the severing of arms and legs or the use of drugs like mifepristone that starve the child to death before forcibly expelling him or her from the safety of the womb.”

     Smith also explained each provision of the bill, which would:

•           “Make the Hyde Amendment and other current abortion funding prohibitions permanent and government wide.

•           Ensure that the Affordable Care Act, until repeal, conforms with the Hyde Amendment.

•           Until a new plan year begins, ensure full disclosure, transparency and the prominent display of the extent to which any health insurance plan on the exchange funds abortion.”

     H.R. 7 is identical to bills that passed in 2014 and 2015, both also numbered H.R. 7. Each of these bills faced the threat of a veto from then-President Obama. Today, however, the Trump Administration signaled its support by issuing a Statement of Administrative Policy affirming that, if presented with H.R. 7, President Trump would sign the bill.

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