U.S. Congressman Mike Pence released the following statement regarding H.R. 3170, the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act of 2010:

It is morally wrong to take the taxpayer dollars of hundreds of thousands of Washington, D.C. residents who cherish the right to life and use them to fund abortions. I am deeply disturbed that this Congress is set to vote on a Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act that lacks traditional protections against using tax dollars to fund the destruction of human life.
 
Every year since 1996, this annual funding bill has included language that prevented the use of federal and local funds to pay for abortions in the District of Columbia.  Not only was the language prohibiting the use of local funds stripped from the Financial Services Appropriations bill, but a bipartisan amendment to restore this ban on taxpayer-funded abortion offered by Congressman Todd Tiahrt (R-KS) and Congressman Lincoln Davis (D-TN) was blocked by the Democrat-controlled Rules Committee from even receiving an up-or-down vote on the House floor, violating a much older tradition of this storied institution.
 
Earlier this year I joined nearly 180 of my colleagues in writing a letter to Speaker Pelosi to urge the retention of important pro-life provisions that have historically been included in government spending bills.  Despite our bipartisan plea, the Democrat leadership has chosen to remove these provisions and deny the people’s representatives a vote in this House, shutting out the voices of the millions of pro-life American taxpayers they represent.
 
The District of Columbia now has the unlimited ability to use local taxpayer funds to provide abortions.  This is a dark moment for the cause of life in America and I hope that this Congress will rededicate itself not only to protecting the taxpayer, but the unborn.