The Scoop
Another one of the House GOP’s party-line appropriations bills may be in trouble, this time thanks to a fight over abortion.
Republican moderates are expressing qualms about the financial services and general government appropriations bill, in part because it would attempt to bar Washington, D.C. from enforcing a local law that bars employers from discriminating against women who have an abortion or use contraception.
The ordinance has long been a target for conservatives, and in 2015 the Republican-led House voted to repeal it. The financial services bill, which also covers annual funding for D.C., would block the city from using any federal funds to implement the law.
But GOP members representing competitive districts, particularly in New York, are voicing concerns about that effort, and are threatening to topple the appropriations bill when it goes up for a vote this week.
Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, R-N.Y. told Semafor that he and other moderate Republicans opposed the measure, and were scheduled to meet with the GOP Whip’s office later today. Rep. Marc Molinaro, R-N.Y. said he could only support the bill if the abortion provision were removed. “We must respect and love women confronted with a difficult choice,” he told Semafor.
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa. told Semafor he became a no on the bill “the minute” he saw the abortion provision. “The whip operation means nothing to me. I vote with my district,” he said.
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The new showdown comes just one day after an election night during which Democrats yet again notched high-profile wins in state contests focused on abortion. Ohio’s voters codified abortion rights, making it the seventh state to do so in the postRoe v Wade era, while Virginia Democrats defended their majority in the state senate and flipped its assembly with their own abortion focused campaign.
This also mark the second appropriations bill that could stall in the House because of a controversial abortion measure. In September, under Speaker Kevin McCarthy, the House failed to pass an agriculture appropriations bill that would have reversed an FDA measure implemented during the pandemic that allowed the abortion drug mifepristone to be distributed by mail.
