Federal authorities are reportedly flying pregnant women and girls who illegally entered the country to states that have liberal abortion policies so they can terminate their preborn children.
"When there are migrants detained in a certain area, there's ICE procedures, but they have to comply with the state law," notes Jennifer Popik of the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC). "And then what they're supposed to do at that point is not only comply with state law, but they're supposed to make a request, and then an outside group can pay for their travel to get an abortion."
The Hyde Amendment would bar the government from paying for the procedure, so she says the project needs to be investigated.
Also, it is obvious to Popik that the pro-life state of Texas is the administration's target with this.
"That's where the first primary contact for a lot of immigrants has been, and Texas has some very protective state laws to protect unborn children," she tells AFN. "We see an administration not only sort of publicly banging on Texas, but trying to find ways to work around it. And that's something we need to keep our eye on."
However, she does not think Congress will look into it unless voters in November send a conservative pro-life majority into both houses.
Meanwhile, questions surround the idea of making federal land available for abortion clinics. Nearly 40 leaders of major pro-life organizations have written a letter calling on members of Congress to prevent the federal government from facilitating abortion.
"Can you imagine you're going to the Grand Canyon, and it's like, 'This way Grand Canyon; this way go lose a member of the family,'" poses Caroline Wharton of Students for Life Action. "So what we're doing in this letter is asking them to please don't let anything like this happen. This kind of action would obviously be a coercive abuse of power and definitely a misuse of federal property."
Federal properties are maintained with tax dollars, and she reiterates that the Hyde Amendment prohibits use of federal money to facilitate abortion.
"Polls historically show that the American taxpayer does not want to pay for abortions at all, and so using these federal properties for that reason, to me, definitely shows an overstep," the pro-lifer submits. "It would hurt the conscience rights of Americans who do not want their funds to be going towards that."
So far the idea of using federal properties to terminate innocent babies in the womb is only a notion, but there are liberal causes working behind the scenes to get a member of Congress to introduce a bill.
