New Phase in the Battle

“Is it not delightful to contemplate that we might dispose of this thing and not have to confront it month after month as we go campaigning next year?”— George Mahon (D., Texas)

The “thing” to which the Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee was referring on December 7, 1977 was the federal financing of abortions. For almost six months Congress had struggled over the issue; the House and Senate had repeatedly confronted each other, both parties had been seriously split, and the $60-billion appropriations bill for Labor, and Health, Education, and Welfare (to which a ban on abortion funding had been tacked) had hung suspended. The real stakes, however, were not the amour propre of House or Senate, the unity of the parties, or even the fate of an appropriations act that was certain to be passed eventually anyway. The real stakes were 300,000 human lives—the number of unborn human beings who, if past practice was a guide, would be aborted this year at government expense if federal welfare funds were provided for abortions.

About the Author

John Noonan

John Noonan is an adviser to POLARIS National Security. He is a former congressional staffer and veteran of the United States Air Force.

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“Is it not delightful to contemplate that we might dispose of this thing and not have to confront it month after month as we go campaigning next year?”— George Mahon (D., Texas)

The “thing” to which the Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee was referring on December 7, 1977 was the federal financing of abortions. For almost six months Congress had struggled over the issue; the House and Senate had repeatedly confronted each other, both parties had been seriously split, and the $60-billion appropriations bill for Labor, and Health, Education, and Welfare (to which a ban on abortion funding had been tacked) had hung suspended. The real stakes, however, were not the amour propre of House or Senate, the unity of the parties, or even the fate of an appropriations act that was certain to be passed eventually anyway. The real stakes were 300,000 human lives—the number of unborn human beings who, if past practice was a guide, would be aborted this year at government expense if federal welfare funds were provided for abortions.