Recently, 10 Republicans voted against Rep. Bob Good's (R-Virginia) proposal that would have made it more difficult for President Joe Biden's administration to circumvent the court's decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization.
Working to keep U.S. Space Command headquarters out of pro-life Alabama and the new Department of Defense policy to cover leave and travel expenses for military personnel stationed in a pro-life state to get abortions elsewhere are just two examples of such efforts within the last year.
Rep. Good had proposed an amendment to the REINS Act that would have required unelected government officials like the Department of Health and Human Services to gain congressional approval before enacting policies.
The REINS Act, also known as Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act, proposes to require any executive branch rule or regulation with an annual economic impact of $100 million or more as designated by the White House's Office of Management and Budget to come before Congress for an up or down vote before being enacted.
The measure has been approved by the House and will head to the Senate, but without the necessary Republican support, Good's attempt to make abortion part of the act failed.
"Every Democrat, of course, the pro-abortion party, they can't get enough abortions at taxpayer expense," Rep. Good told American Family Radio Tuesday. "Every Democrat voted against that amendment, but sadly, 10 Republicans joined them and defeated my amendment."
An attempt to close loopholes
While he supports the REINS Act, Rep. Good sees in it a weakness that leaves too many opportunities for the president to continue working around the court's decision.
"The amendment said that any provision by the agencies and departments, the unelected bureaucrats … any rule they make that advances abortion, increases access to abortion, expands abortion, provides funding for abortion -- anything like that, which likely might not rise to $100 million costs, it wouldn't be covered," Good told show host Jenna Ellis.
The bill's revised version, which does not include that amendment, passed 221-210, with 220 Republicans voting in favor of it. There was one no vote and one abstention.
The House Republicans who voted against the amendment were Don Bacon (Nebraska), Anthony D’Esposito (New York), John Duarte (California), Brian Fitzpatrick (Pennsylvania), Andrew Garbarino (New York), Thomas Kean (New Jersey), Nick LaLota (New York), Michael Lawler (New York), Nancy Mace (South Carolina), and Marcus Molinaro (New York).
When Good shared all those names on Twitter, it did not sit well with one of the 10.
"As soon as that amendment went down, I went ahead and tweeted out of my office, 'Hey, it says a lot about where we've gotten to where even Republicans can't vote to preserve life and to at least require Congress to vote on expanding or increasing access to abortion,'" Good shared.
"One member said to me, 'My abortion conviction is just as strong as yours. I'm pro-life, too, and I just didn't feel like it belonged in the REINS Act,'" he relayed. "I said, 'If you can justify or rationalize your convictions with your vote, that's between you and your convictions. But all it would've done is required us to vote to increase abortion access and not allowed the unelected bureaucrats to do it. We would have taken responsibility.'"
In Good's view, his fellow House member was less concerned about how he voted than he was about the fact that his vote was made public in such a way that people could see it without looking too hard.
Personally, as the representative of Virginia's Fifth Congressional District since 2021, Good is not ashamed of his pro-life record.
In the fall of 2021, he introduced legislation that would have made it a federal offense for doctors to perform a chemical abortion without first conducting a physical examination of the mother. It also would have required the doctor to be present when abortion drugs were administered and when scheduling an in-person follow-up visit with a patient.
The Teleabortion Prevention Act of 2021 did not pass.
Unelected bureaucrats are enacting laws
Good went on to tell Ellis that too often, unelected government employees are enacting laws.
"There are people in the agencies and departments who are not accountable to the voters who want to make law which is really oppressive and costly, suppresses freedom, expands government," he said, using the climate agenda as an example.
In Congress, Good said there are too many "majority makers."
"They claim, 'Hey, we're in the swing districts, the centrist purple districts,' and somehow their votes count more in the House than a conservative's does," he lamented.
With Roe v. Wade having been struck down a year ago, Good thinks Republicans should be more bold about their support for pro-life initiatives.
"We ought to act like we know and understand and recognize the opportunity from the Dobbs decision. We ought to be doing those things we talked about before Roe was overturned. We ought to be as bold and aggressive, and even more, on life now that we have this opportunity," Rep. Good declared.
His office is now working to get to the House floor a bill stating that life begins at conception.
