Attorney General Steve Marshall has called on Congress to reinstate its ban on taxpayer-funded abortions.
Marshall’s request comes in response to President Joe Biden’s exclusion of the ban from his proposed federal budget, a move which would amount to a dramatic shift in federal policy.
In a letter to congressional leaders, Marshall said it was “unconscionable” to force taxpayers who object to abortions to pay for them.
Marshall leads a large coalition of state attorneys general in opposition to Biden’s move. All 21 additional members signed Marshall’s letter which was sent to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), as well as Republican leaders.
Known as the Hyde Amendment, Congress has included a ban on taxpayer-funded abortions every year since 1976.
Marshall took Biden to task for his omission of the ban and offered an overview of its consequences.
“Unborn life might be nothing more than a matter of politics for the administration, but it is something quite different for us: the policy in question is one of life or death,” he wrote. “Studies of the Hyde Amendment have found that it has saved the lives of millions of unborn children—saving 2.13 million lives in its first forty years alone, and saving over 60,000 lives per year today.”
RELATED: Alabama AG Steve Marshall stands up against Biden’s court packing scheme
Calling Biden’s failure to include the prohibition in his budget “conspicuous,” Marshall asserted that members of Congress “should resist following President Biden down this path and should instead maintain the Hyde Amendment language in the budget it ultimately passes.”
Marshall identified the inability of state taxpayers to avoid violating their conscience with their own tax dollars as cause for significant concern and a reason why Congress has long-sustained its ban on federally funded abortions.
Alabama’s chief law enforcement officer outlined several other areas where Biden policy decisions have drawn criticism in the first few months of his term.
“The administration’s decision here is merely the most recent illustration of its having lost all sense of accountability to the taxpayer. In addition to the sheer extravagance of a $6 trillion budget, the administration is insisting that taxpayers fund the far-left agenda that now defines the Democratic Party, such as the indoctrination of school children with ‘critical race theory’ curricula, free ‘gender reassignment’ surgeries for members of the military, and sending stimulus checks to prisoners,” Marshall concluded.
This is the second time this year that Marshall has tangled with the Biden administration over an issue involving religious freedom. In March, he filed a motion seeking to protect religious organizations in the federal contracting process after Biden rescinded an executive order doing so.
Tim Howe is an owner of Yellowhammer Multimedia
Don’t miss out! Subscribe today to have Alabama’s leading headlines delivered to your inbox.