The House Appropriations labor and health and human services subcommittee has “cleared a spending bill for the Department of Health and Human Services without including a decades-old rider prohibiting funding for abortions, kicking off what is likely to be a long and bruising fight,” The Hill, referring to the Hyde amendment, reported.

The subcommittee has also decided not to include the Weldon amendment, which offers conscience protection to pro-life medical providers.

“Eliminating these provisions would force taxpayers to pay for elective abortions and force health care providers and professionals to perform and refer for abortion against their deeply-held beliefs, as well as force employers and insurers to cover and pay for abortion,” the chairmen of the bishops’ religious liberty and pro-life committees noted.