Democrats reject bill targeting trafficking

Abortion dispute threatens effort to protect victims

WASHINGTON — Republicans sought a way out of an abortion dispute that has blocked anti-trafficking legislation, but Democrats immediately rejected their proposal and voted for a third straight day to stop the bill from moving forward.

The developments Thursday deepened a Senate stalemate over the once widely popular bill to help the victims of human trafficking.

The impasse has also stalled confirmation of President Barack Obama’s attorney general nominee.

The bill’s main GOP author, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, unveiled a proposal on the Senate floor that would change the prohibition on abortion spending in a proposed victims’ fund. Democrats have complained that the prohibition goes further than current law.

Cornyn said his proposal would make the victims’ fund subject to the same abortion restrictions that have been included for decades in Congress’ annual spending bills.

“If we can’t get to ‘yes’ on a human trafficking bill, then heaven help us,” Cornyn said as he described what he hoped would be a compromise that could win support from Democrats.

Within minutes, Democrats rejected his plan. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said there could be no compromise on the trafficking bill short of entirely removing a provision that prevents spending for abortions in most cases.

“We want that language out,” Feinstein told reporters. “There’s a compromise possible: Take it out.”

Annual abortion restrictions in current law apply to tax dollars, whereas the victims’ fund envisioned by the trafficking legislation would be made up of fees paid by criminals. Democrats say applying restrictions on abortion spending to that new pot of money is an expansion they can’t accept.