January 29, 2009
Today the Senate rejected another pro-life amendment by a vote of 39-59.
The amendment was proposed to the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP) bill by Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT).
The amendment would have made permanent a regulation issued by President Bush in 2002 that allows states to cover children from conception to birth and up to age 19. This optional coverage to unborn children and their mothers was elected by 14 states since 2002.
Senator Hatch had this to say in response to the defeat of his amendment, “I cannot understand those who insist that we establish hundreds of programs to help millions of people by spending billions of dollars, but who do not believe that the lives of those very same people should not be protected. The Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) is about promoting children’s health. My amendment does exactly that. The child in the womb is just as alive, just as human, as that very same child will be after he or she is born.”
Click here for the full text of Senator Hatch’s press release.
