In a valiant effort to end all federal funding for the training of health care providers in abortion related services, North Carolina Rep. Virginia Foxx, in May, offered an amendment to H.R. 1216, introduced by Kentucky Rep. Brett Guthrie.
The main purpose of the overall bill was to change a provision of Obamacare which setup mandatory, or direct appropriations, “for graduate medical education in qualified teaching health centers.” Even so, Rep. Foxx used this opportunity to score a pro-life victory.
Her amendment prohibited “the use of funds provided for graduate medical education from being used to provide abortion or training in the provision of abortion. Additionally, funds would not be provided to a teaching health center if the institution discriminates against individual health care entities that refuse to provide abortion, under go training in the provision of abortion, or offer referral for abortion services.”
Rep. Foxx’s amendment was adopted by the House with a vote of 234-182, and the entire bill, as amended, was passed by a margin of 234-185. The bill is still awaiting Senate action and has been referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
Watch Rep. Foxx’s floor speech about her amendment here.
