WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding protections for the unborn:
“Unfortunately, the Administration’s radical left turn touches much more than just infrastructure policy. In fact, it includes an unprecedented new threat to the basic dignity of human life.
“On the campaign trail last year, President Biden announced that he would abandon a mainstream position he had held for decades – that taxpayer dollars should not be used to fund abortions.
“It was an alarming reversal. But, under immense pressure from the far Left, President Biden kept his radical campaign promise, shrugged off a commonsense precedent upheld by Administrations of both parties for more than 40 years, and proposed a budget that entirely erases the protections of the Hyde Amendment.
“When asked about it at a hearing yesterday, the Secretary of Health and Human Services confirmed that the President’s change of heart was no mistake. Quote: ‘The budget is a reflection of what the President has said…’
“This new, fringe stance on taxpayer-funded abortions aligns much more closely with the Secretary’s own views, as our colleagues may recall from his confirmation process.
“Now, it’s no secret that the Democratic Party has been hurtling to the left on abortion in recent years.
“Here in the Senate, our colleagues have repeatedly blocked efforts to limit elective abortion after the 20th week.
“Their opposition keeps the United States in rather inglorious company alongside China, North Korea, and just four other countries that fail to offer this basic protection to the unborn.
“So President Biden’s decision to abandon the Hyde Amendment aligns him with an increasingly radical consensus among elected Democrats. But it puts him way out of step with the clear majority of Americans who oppose taxpayer-funded abortion.
“Mr. President, the Administration’s budget request continues to make headlines for all the wrong reasons.
“But its plan to sell out on longstanding protections for the most vulnerable Americans might just be the lowest of the low.”