The cause of the row? Democrats didn’t read the 68-page bill to discover its provisions dealing with abortion, and Republicans didn’t disclose the abortion language when Democratic staffers asked them for a summary of the legislation.

A bill designed to help victims of human trafficking by providing more enforcement resources and establishing a victims compensation fund for financial assistance has fallen prey to the partisan divide over abortion. Manu Raju has the details of the bill's undoing:The Justice for Victims in Trafficking Act, introduced by Republican Sen. John Cornyn Texas, started the week with plenty of bipartisan support, which quickly unraveled once Democrats realized a provision had been included that would restrict victims from using money from the compensation fund for abortions—ya know, because they should totally love that baby and want to keep it after being forced into prostitution, sexually exploited and traumatized.

In any case, federal funds (i.e. taxpayer dollars) have not been allowed to be used for abortions, except in cases of rape and incest, since the mid-'70s. The anti-abortion provision, routinely attached to federal spending bills, is known as the Hyde amendment. But money for the compensation fund in the human trafficking bill would have come from fines imposed on the traffickers. So Democrats adamantly opposed including the abortion restriction and saw it as an expansion of the Hyde amendment.

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