GOP abortion stance won’t help economy
There were 251 “ayes” in the U.S. House of Representatives when HR 3 came up for a recent vote. All the Republicans, including Roskam, Biggert and Hultgren and 16 Democrats, including Lipinski and Costello from Illinois, voted to make the Hyde Amendment even more draconian.
The Republican House leadership considered beefing up the Hyde Amendment the third most important thing to do since they took office in January.
The first most important, HR 1, was repealing the Affordable Care Act. Jobs aren’t important to them; foreclosures aren’t important to them; the economy as a whole isn’t important to them. What is important to the U.S House of Representatives is making sure no dime of federal money goes toward any abortion.
The Hyde Amendment has always exempted women impregnated by rape. HR 3 exempts women impregnated by “forcible” rape. HR 3 assigns the duty of determining whether the woman’s rape was forcible to Internal Revenue Service agents.
HR 3 also increases taxes on businesses that provide employees health insurance that includes abortion coverage.
This legislation cannot help but further damage our fragile economic recovery. In the budget deal recently passed, lawmakers agreed not to hire more IRS agents. At the same time, the Government Accountability Office reported that $330 billion in taxes owed remained uncollected by the IRS at the end of 2010.
Giving the already understaffed IRS additional duties that have nothing to do with collecting taxes is no way to increase our revenues. The best way to reduce the number of abortions in the U.S. is to improve the economy. Winston Churchill once said, “There is no finer investment for any community than putting milk into babies.”
Women who cannot offer their unborn children a hopeful future will not bear children.
Mary F. Warren
Wheaton