President's First Budget Deal Avoids Shutdown, Beefs Up Military, but Disappoints Pro-life Community Big Time—However...

Aimee Herd-Op Ed : May 2, 2017
Breaking Christian News

Disappointing that Planned Parenthood hasn't been defunded yet—yes. However, what we need to keep in mind is that this was a budget deal for 2017; the REAL battle that will matter most comes in the fall, when the 2018 budget is negotiated. 

There has been a significant amount of frustration and disappointment voiced by many who have supported President Trump—during his campaign and in his first 100 days in office—over the 2017 budget extension deal, reached in the Senate on Sunday night, and to be voted on in the House later this week. (Photo: REUTERS/Gary Cameron)

It's true that certain campaign promises have seemingly gone unanswered in this first of Trump's budget agreements—ie: funding for building the border wall (money has been appropriated, but it's less than half what was originally asked for), and defunding abortion giant Planned Parenthood. Yet, the bill has kept the government from shutting down, which would certainly have been blamed on Trump and the right, even though obstruction from the left is the more likely suspect.

An article in CBN News quoted Students for Life president, Kristan Hawkins: "It's beyond frustrating that Congress is poised to pass a government funding bill that continues to fund Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion vendor and the subject of over a dozen criminal referrals from committees in both the House and Senate."

Hawkins added, "The Republican Party is the only party with an anti-abortion platform and whose candidates ran specifically on the promise to defund Planned Parenthood, yet, here we are, watching them pass a bill that funds Planned Parenthood even though they control the House, Senate, and White House."

I share Kristan's disappointment, together with that of our pro-life community at large, however, I'd also say, let's remember that this is a bill to fund the rest of this (2017) fiscal year, and the one that will really matter is the 2018 budget.

That legislation will be presented, dissected and debated in the fall, and will hopefully be the one that will bring about these promises made by the President—most importantly for pro-lifers: the defunding of Planned Parenthood.

Also, the health care bill—making its second appearance after some major reworking—will also likely contain some movement toward accomplishing the above objective.

One more note: President Trump just brought another pro-life advocate into an important post in his administration; Charmaine Yoest will serve as Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs for the Health and Human Services Department. The person Yoest replaces is not only abortion-minded, but he has been hired by Planned Parenthood as their VP for communications.

Sometimes concessions have to be made in Washington, in order to pave the way for better legislation later on; let's hope this is the case.

In the meantime, instead of railing against Trump and Congress for this current budget bill (if it passes), let's be praying toward some real pro-life progress in the fall.