D.C., Pro-Lifers On The Hill Battle Over Budget Deal Implementation

D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

The bone thrown to abortion opponents in the 2011 budget deal — which dropped the GOP’s plans to defund Planned Parenthood — was the reinstatement of a federal ban on the D.C. government spending its funds on abortion in the way it would like.

Now the pro-life members who got the ban into the budget law are worrying that the city may not act to enforce the ban, and are calling out Mayor Vincent Gray. The mayor’s office tells TPM that they’re planning to comply with the wishes of Congress.

It’s the latest round in a proxy war over abortion that sees state rights-friendly conservatives repeatedly impose their will on the taxpayers of the nation’s capital.

District law allows the city to pay for elective abortions performed on enrollees in the city’s low-income health plans. For more details on how that works, see the reporting of the Washington Post‘s Mike Debonis.

The total number of abortions performed with taxpayer cash since August, 2010? Around 117, according to Debonis, totaling about $62,000.

The cost or number, of course, are not the main concerns of those on the pro-life side of the abortion debate. They want to see all elective abortions banned, regardless of who pays for it. And as part of the budget deal that kept the government from shutting down, they reinstated a federal ban on abortion coverage in D.C. that had been lifted in 2009.

On Thursday, dozens of anti-abortion Senators and Representatives dispatched a letter to Gray calling on him to implement the new rules immediately and end his government’s abortion-funding. The letter, first reported by the National Review, calls on Gray to “provide detailed information outlining what steps you are taking to ensure that no more public funds are used to pay for elective abortion in D.C.”

The letter also alleges that “repeated requests” from Congress “for information about public funding for abortion in the District of Columbia…have been ignored” by the District government. A D.C. official told TPM that’s not the case.

The abortion letter comes shortly after Gray and other DC leaders took steps to show Congress exactly what they think of their meddling in District affairs. Gray was arrested last week for blocking Constitution Ave (near the Capitol building) to protest the budget deal, including the provisos that tell the D.C. government how it can spend its money on abortion services and other matters.

It’s all part of a long-running fight between D.C. and Congress. Congress has sweeping powers over the city and its budget, and it uses them — often to make political points. A classic example is the city’s private school voucher system. Democrats let the plan lapse when they controlled Congress, and it’s up and running again after the budget deal led by Republican House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), a champion of the scheme.

Gray says that despite his overt distaste for his new Republican overlords — and the new abortion regulations imposed on him — he’ll accede to the GOP’s demands. Though the signatories of the letter claimed otherwise, an aide in the D.C. government told TPM Thursday that the city government has already been cooperating with Congressional requests about abortion funding.

As Debonis reported, Gray took the opportunity to take a swipe at his predecessor. “Gray administration sources say it was Fenty who never responded to repeated requests from Hill Republicans for information on local-taxpayer-funded abortions.”

Team Gray said the adminstration’s response to the congressional letter was being drafted Thursday, and will definitely arrive in Capitol inboxes by the May 6 deadline the signatories to the letter imposed.

“Since receiving the first letter in January, [Gray’s] staff has been in communication with congressional staff about this issue,” the mayor’s office told TPM in a statement. “Unlike previous Administrations, Mayor Gray will send a response.”

The statement also had a sarcastic tone, befitting the state of relations between the District government and the Republicans in charge of the House:

“The Mayor has received the letter and is reviewing it,” a Mayoral spokesperson said. “He wants to thank the Members of Congress for their interest in the health care services provided by the District for its low-income citizens.”

Latest DC
Comments
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: