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The controversial bill H.R. 3, also known as the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortions Act”, will be reviewed by the Judiciary Committee’s constitution subcommittee next week before being passed on to the Senate and President Obama. The bill was introduced by Republican Rep. Chris Smith last month. It has received bipartisan support within the House, and attempts to limit federal abortion funding to pregnancies that result from “forcible rape.” This bill makes the so-called Hyde Amendment permanent and eliminates Medicaid funding for most abortions of pregnancies that result from statutory rape and incest. Under H.R. 3, self-employed people and people with health savings accounts would not be able to treat abortions as medical expenses. The Act is expected to be coldly received by the Senate and rejected by President Obama, who has previously expressed support for abortion rights. In parallel with the introduction of H.R. 3, several pro-life groups have launched a campaign to eliminate Title X family planning funding for institutions, despite the fact that the funding cannot be used to fund abortions. Each year, Title X funding supports thousands of community health clinics, including Planned Parenthood, a group that provided sex education, contraceptives, preventative cancer screenings and counseling to 5 million Americans in 2008. Activists from the pro-life campaign Live Action have dedicated themselves to dismantling Planned Parenthood through a series of smear campaigns. Between January 11th and 15th, several activists from Live Action posed as sex trafficking victims and Planned Parenthood employees and filmed themselves advising young women to lie about their health information in order to obtain abortions. The FBI has since launched an investigation into the activist group’s actions.

GUEST: Loretta Ross, founding member and National Coordinator of Sister Song, a Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective

Find out more at www.sistersong.net.