Lawmakers Lauded for Knocking Off Bankruptcy Bill's Pro-Abortion Rider
by Ed Thomas
April 20, 2005
(AgapePress) - When the new "bankruptcy bill" was approved by Congress last week, it represented a triumph -- not just for the banking and credit industries, but for pro-life demonstrators who might have been victimized by an amendment to the bill.Bankruptcy reform legislation cleared its final legislative hurdle last Thursday when the U.S. House of Representatives voted 302-126 to send the bankruptcy bill to President Bush for his signature. The core of the legislation, which the Senate approved last month, is designed to direct higher-income debtors into repayment plans.
An amendment initiative introduced by New York Senator Chuck Schumer would have excluded pro-life abortion clinic demonstrators from bankruptcy protection if they were sued. However, that amendment failed to be included in the final version of the bankruptcy bill.
According to Christian Coalition of America communications director Michele Combs, much of the credit for the defeat of that initiative should go to pro-life members of Congress, who first changed their votes when informed about the amendment in the House version of the bill more than two and a half years ago. "Actually, Congressman [Tom] Delay and a few of the House leaders were really promoting this bill," she notes. "However, once Chuck Schumer compromised and stuck that amendment on, they totally backed off the bill."
That amended reform bill lost by 71 votes, and a similar attempt was defeated in the Senate by a margin of 53-46 last month. Combs commends the pro-life senators and representatives who opposed the amendment, and remarks, "I'm very proud of our legislators for standing up to the pro-choice crowd in Washington."
The successful defeat of the Schumer amendment in both the House and Senate cleared a path through the legislature for a bankruptcy bill that was not biased against pro-lifers. "So it was a great, great victory for all the grassroots out there around the country," the Christian Coalition spokesperson says. "It proves that when congressmen hear from you, they will change their vote, as they did in 2002."
Combs warns pro-life Christians to stay on top of any bills passed in Congress to make sure a pro-choice legislator does not attach something that works to the disadvantage of sanctity-of-life causes. Pro-lifers must be vigilant, she says, to anticipate similar attempts by pro-choice lobbies to get pro-abortion riders added to bills authored in the legislature.
Ed Thomas, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
