While this is great news and we are truly happy, it is also bad news that the pregnancy centers and maternity homes lost their funding. In addition, when they voted to remove all of the funding, they eliminated any debate on the Windschitl Amendment that clarified the money could only be designated to pregnancy centers and could not be given to groups that did abortions.

 

We need to point out that we are concerned that the Planned Parenthood funding removed last night could be put back in during the Conference Committee--which is a committee set up to work out the disagreements in the two chambers. This Committee is traditionally made up of 6 Democrats and 4 Republicans from both the House and Senate. The objective is to come up with an agreement on the budget and thisis where the Senate could insist that the money for Planned Parenthood be placed back into the budget.

 

For now we will enjoy the victory and prepare for when the House and Senate meet in Conference to work out the compromise on the budget. 

 

Kim Lehman
President
Iowa Right to Life Committee
Cell 515.202.2517