The House Appropriations Committee on Thursday approved a 2013 State Department funding bill that includes controversial anti-abortion language. [...] On abortion, the bill cuts off all funding for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and reinstates the Mexico City policy, also known as the global gag rule. The rules says that all non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that receive U.S. funding must refrain from performing or promoting abortion services.

Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.), ranking member of the Appropriations foreign operations subcommittee, offered an amendment to strip out the anti-abortion restrictions, but it was defeated 23-27. Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.) voted for the amendment. “These provisions will leave millions of women without access to critical and lifesaving services,” Lowey argued. She said the global gag rule has been shown to have led to a doubling in the number of abortions in Africa when it was imposed by the George W. Bush administration. Lowey asserted that the provisions would result in 1.4 million more abortions once women were barred from receiving family planning services.

Isn't it amazing that despite all their concerns about jobs, jobs, jobs—and ending Medicare and giving more tax cuts to the rich and protecting light bulb freedom—House Republicans can still find time in their busy schedule of accomplishing nothing to focus on abortion, abortion, abortion? Via The Hill:The global gag rule, first implemented by Ronald Reagan, rescinded by Bill Clinton, reinstated by George W. Bush, and rescinded again by Barack Obama, has been a disaster for women around the world. Although the policy supposedly prohibits funding or organizations that "promote abortion," what it really does is cuts off funding for women's reproductive health and family planning of any kind. So, in the years when the rule is in effect, unplanned and unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortions, and maternal mortality rates increase—because when you cut off women's access to safe and affordable health care and information, it makes things worse for women and their children:But as long as "pro-life" Republicans can stop people from even talking about abortion, they don't really care if their policies lead to more dead women and dead children. Because that's how being "pro-life" works.