The Senate today passed a clean bill to provide funding to combat the coronavirus that contains language preventing the funds from being used to pay for abortions. This afternoon the Senate passed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, the multibillion-dollar coronavirus relief bill that provides free testing and paid leave, on a 90 to 8 vote.

The vote comes days after Speaker Nancy Pelosi was called out by White House officials for allowing abortion funding under her version of the legislation. Pelosi is apparently so dedicated to promoting abortion and forcing Americans to fund killing babies in abortion that her version of the bill did not have the Hyde Amendment and allowed taxpayer financing of abortions.

The abortion funding was eventually neutralized and the House approved a clean bill. Today the Senate also approved a clean bill with no abortion funding in place.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the national pro-life group Susan B. Anthony List, told LifeNews she is glad the Senate bill is abortion free.

“Congress did right by the American people by successfully applying the Hyde Amendment to funds in the coronavirus supplemental bill. This is vital to continue longstanding precedent that health-related funds are always life-affirming. Americans should not have to worry about whether or not emergency funds related to a legitimate health crisis could be ill-used for abortion-related purposes. We are thankful to Congress for working in a bipartisan fashion to pass this legislation that preserves Hyde protections. We commend President Trump and his administration for their unwavering leadership and insistence on Hyde protections. In this time of uncertainty, we will continue to work diligently to defend the lives of the unborn.”

After her version of the legislation was unveiled, pro-life advocates and White House officials realized Pelosi’s measure authorized abortion funding because it funded anti-coronavirus activities in such a way that the funding came from portions of HHS that are not covered by the Hyde Amendment.

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As The Daily Caller reported last week before the abortion funding was eliminated:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sought to include a potential way to guarantee federal funding for abortion into the coronavirus economic stimulus plan, according to multiple senior White House officials. Speaking to the Daily Caller, those officials alleged that while negotiating the stimulus with U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, Pelosi tried to lobby for “several” provisions that stalled bipartisan commitment to the effort. One was a mandate for up to $1 billion to reimburse laboratory claims, which White House officials say would set a precedent of health spending without protections outlined in the Hyde Amendment. “A New mandatory funding stream that does not have Hyde protections would be unprecedented,” one White House official explained. “Under the guise of protecting people, Speaker Pelosi is working to make sure taxpayer dollars are spent covering abortion—which is not only backwards, but goes against historical norms.” A second White House official referred to the provision as a “slush fund” and yet another questioned “what the Hyde Amendment and abortion have to do with protecting Americans from coronavirus?”

Nancy Pelosi has a long history of promoting abortion and her first act after becoming Speaker in 2019 was pushing legislation to use tax money for abortions. But killing babies with our tax dollars is not the answer to the coronavirus and the situation should not be exploited for political gain.