New Abortion Bill Changed

On January 20th, a Republican-backed bill was introduced that seeks to render the Hyde Amendment permanent, among other antiabortion provisions. In an effort to cut federal funding for abortions, the new bill tailored existing Hyde Amendment language, changing exceptions for rape to "forcible rape". The new language was met with immediate public outcry from women's groups, prochoice activists, and advocates of rape victims. Their concern was surrounded the new definition of rape, which is widely understood as being a sexual crime of force.

The linguistic change was cut on February 3rd, and returned to the original Hyde wording, which funds abortions in cases of rape, incest or danger to the life of the mother. According to The Washington Post, lawmakers claimed they changed the language because the term forcible was being "misconstrued". The abortion debate has returned to Capitol Hill with a vengeance.

Read more here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/09/us/politics/09congress.html?scp=1&sq=new%20abortion%20bill&st=cse

http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-h3/text