FaxNotes - November 14, 1997

Nov. 14, 1997



House Republicans Dump "Mexico City" Amendment The Republicans blinked again. The $12.8 billion Foreign Operations spending bill was stalled in Congress for over a month due to House Republicans' insistence on inclusion of an amendment, known as the Mexico City policy, prohibiting funding for international "family planning" agencies that perform, promote or support abortion, or lobby for changes in pro-life laws in foreign countries with their own money. President Clinton had vowed to veto the bill, should it contain the pro-life language. On November 12, House leaders moved to drop the amendment in order to move the bill, opening the way for Congress to provide $385 million in taxpayer dollars to international programs in developing countries that promote and/or perform abortions. In retaliation against the President's firm rejection of the pro-life amendment, Republicans also dropped the portions of the bill authorizing spending authority for reorganization of the State Department, payment of $819 million in back dues to the United Nations, and a $3.5 billion credit line for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) requested by the Clinton administration. They then rolled the State Department reorganization, U.N. repayment and the $3.5 billion credit line together with the pro-life amendment into a new bill, which is expected to go nowhere, due to White House and Senate opposition to the pro-life provision. We are watching with great interest what happens next. In the end, will President Clinton be denied the funding for the U.N., IMF and State Department reorganization, or will the pro-life provision be dropped entirely in the last minute shuffle before Congress adjourns for the holiday recess, allowing him to have his way? Assisted Suicide Oregon's legalization of physician-assisted suicide may not be implemented, at least any time soon, due to a determination by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) that federal narcotics law prohibits doctors from prescribing lethal doses of medication to aid a suicide. The DEA announcement came in response to an inquiry by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Rep. Henry Hyde (R-IL), that expressed concern about the law's implications. Hatch told The Oregonian on Sunday, November 9, that he will encourage the Justice Department "to prosecute any doctor that prescribes drugs to kill people." (The DEA is a division of the Justice Department.) Vermont, Michigan and Colorado are expected to introduce assisted suicide legislation. It's Called Chutzpah Governor Pete Wilson (R-CA), whose entire political career has been dedicated to promoting unrestricted abortion-on-demand, whose administration has pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into funding of MediCal abortions, and who, along with former Massachusetts Governor William Weld and Governor Christine Todd Whitman of New Jersey, led the failed effort to remove the pro-life plank from the Republican National Platform, addressed the California Christian Coalition on - guess what? Family values! The fact that Gov. Wilson, who is thinking about another run for the White House in 2000, recently reasserted his desire to see the Republican Party rid of its principled stance in defense of innocent life notwithstanding, he appealed to the audience to set aside their differences over abortion. The audience met his suggestion with stony silence, although he was "accorded repeated hearty applause by the Christian Coalition convention . . ." when he pushed many of the conservative-issues-buttons during his speech. Governor Wilson's record speaks volumes about what he would do if he were President. In an interview with the San Diego Union Tribune (11/9/97), Chuck Cunningham, Christian Coalition's director of national operations, said Wilson's appeal to set aside differences over abortion would be as much a non-starter as his attempt at last year's Republican National Convention to remove the anti-abortion plank from the GOP platform. "He tried that in San Diego last year," Cunningham said. "Didn't work too well."




*Republican National Coalition for Life* Box 618 Alton Illinois 62002 618-462-5415 Fax: 618-462-8909 E-mail**