Pro-life defeats in Congress

On September 6, 2007, the Senate voted on the “Boxer amendment” regarding the longstanding Mexico City policy, which had prevented federal money from flowing to foreign organizations that promote and / or perform abortion as a method of family planning. (We might think of the Boxer Amendment, then, as a big-money sop to a powerful corporate special interest, i.e., Planned Parenthood. One suspects, of course, that this is not how the Amendment will be cast in the press.)

Here is the roll-call vote. Only one Democrat — Ben Nelson, not Robert Casey — voted to preserve the policy. Also, the Senate rejected the Brownback Amendment, which would have prohibited contributions to organizations that promote and / or perform abortions as a method of family planning. Two Democrats — Ben Nelson and Robert Casey — voted in support of the Amendment. The Senate agreed, however — just barely (!!) — to another Brownback Amendment, which denies federal money to groups that “support coercive abortion.” Only two Democrats — Ben Nelson and Robert Casey — supported the Amendment.