This was a vote on an amendment by Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) that barred federal funding for graduate medical education from being used to train physicians to perform abortions. This amendment was offered to legislation limiting federal funding for graduate medical education to $46 million per year.

Foxx urged support for her amendment: “…Approximately 50 million children have been aborted in the United States. This is a tragedy. According to a CNN poll last month, more than 60 percent of Americans oppose taxpayer funding for abortion. This number includes many of my constituents and is consistent with my strong pro-life convictions….This amendment ensures that the grants being provided to teaching health centers are not being used to perform elective abortions and makes it crystal clear that taxpayer money is not being used to train health care providers to perform abortion procedures….The unborn are the most innocent and vulnerable members of our society and their right to life must be protected. Therefore, I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of this amendment.”

Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) opposed the amendment: “ Ensuring that doctors and nurses are fully trained in abortion procedures is essential to ensuring that they can be providing lifesaving care when abortion is a medically necessary procedure to save the life of a pregnant woman. Now, most pregnancies, thank goodness, progress safely. But sometimes there's an emergency. And sometimes a medical abortion is necessary to protect a woman's health or life. For example…in cases of preeclampsia, hemorrhage, and severe pulmonary hypertension, or bleeding placenta previa, which can be fatal if left untreated, an abortion is a life-saving procedure. In addition, in managing a miscarriage, sometimes an abortion procedure is essential to saving the woman's life. Now, under this amendment, virtually any type of health care facility could face the loss of funding if they needed to provide abortion care in an emergency situation. And moreover… residents need to be trained in how to handle these very complicated conditions that could necessitate an abortion.”

The House agreed to this amendment by a vote of 234-182. Voting “yea” were 221 Republicans and 13 Democrats. 172 Democrats and 10 Republicans voted “nay.” As a result the House agreed to an amendment that would have barred federal funding for graduate medical education from being used to train physicians to perform abortions.