In the choice between public funding of abortion and helping victims of human trafficking, Senate Democrats have thrown victims under the bus.
Via Lifenews.com:
Proving once again that, for Democrats, abortion trumps everything else in politics, Senate Democrats voted today to stop a bill to help human trafficking victims because the measure won’t pay for their abortions.
The legislation passed through the Senate Judiciary Committee without any problems but, now, pro-abortion activists are raising a stink about how funds for restitution for human trafficking victims won’t pay for abortions. The objection is offensive to victims of human trafficking and millions of girls and young women around the world who are victimized by it, putting abortion ahead of meeting their needs.
Senate Democrats voted against a cloture motion to end the Democratic filibuster and to allow a vote on the sex trafficking bill — with every Republican in the Senate supporting the measure and favoring an end to the filibuster preventing it from moving forward. The final vote was 55-43 against ending the filibuster and the cloture motion needed 60 votes to move the bill ahead to a vote. Democratic Senator Donnelly, Casey, Manchin, and Heitkamp voted with Republicans to end debate.
After the first cloture vote, Republicans held a second cloture vote to end debate and Senate Democrats voted a second time to block the bill to help human trafficking victims on a similar 55-43 vote.
Here’s the background:
Last week Senate Democrats claimed to “suddenly” find language (it had been the same for weeks) in the bipartisan bill (it has 12 Democrat co-sponsors) regarding abortion funding:
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid insisted Wednesday that a bill to combat human trafficking, previously noted for its bipartisan support, will not pass unless anti-abortion language is removed.
“Unless that language is taken out of the bill, there will be no bill,” Reid said on the Senate floor this afternoon, a sharp turn from Monday, when he predicted little or no resistance on the bill.
The Justice for Victims of Human Trafficking Act of 2015, authored by Sen. John Cornyn, passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously last month.
…That refers to a provision known as the Hyde amendment, which says federal funds can’t be used for abortion except in cases of rape, incest or when the life of the mother is at risk.
Reid said Wednesday that putting it in this bill would make the Hyde amendment permanent.
Cornyn aide Drew Brandewie said that isn’t true, because the Hyde language applies only to the victims’ fund, which the bill authorized only for five fiscal years.
Eleanor Gaetan, legislative adviser at the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, one of more than 200 groups that support the bill, noted that the fund will provide money for existing federally supported anti-trafficking programs. The Hyde language already applies to those programs, she said.
Meanwhile, Democrats have left sex trafficking victims twisting in the wind. Eleanor Gaetan, legislative adviser at the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, has said, “Senate Democrats are choosing a phantom problem over real victims.
Senator Cornyn excoriated Democrats on the Senate floor for filibustering the bill:
“Children are being abused and literally sexually assaulted while, apparently, some of our colleagues on the other side of the aisle have decided to try to make a political point,” he said. “To our colleagues who are filibustering this legislation, are you prepared to turn your back on the thousands of people living every day in bondage and who are desperately clinging to the hope that someone, someone will lend them a helping hand? Are you prepared to abandon these children and these other victims of human trafficking who deserve a roof over their head, someone to lean on, and somehow, some way to get a fresh start in life?”
Can you imagine if it was Republicans who were filibustering a human trafficking bill?! We would NEVER hear the end of it! We need to keep hitting Democrats over the head with this, especially the next time they bring up their phony “War on Women.”
Never forget it was Democrats who put killing babies with your tax money first over helping victims of the sex trade!