House Republicans made a priority of ending the funding for abortions for poor women by the District of Columbia during the 2011 debt ceiling standoff, and they’ve continued to keep that ban in place in any prior budget battle since then. But the Senate has decided to present their own budget, and this one allows the District to decide for itself where it wants to spend its money, even when it comes to terminating a pregnancy.

Via The Washington Post:

A Senate panel approved a spending bill for the District on Tuesday that does not include a ban on city-funded abortions, setting up another fight on the subject with the Republican-controlled House….While the House bill includes a prohibition against the District using its own taxpayer funds to pay for abortions for low-income women, the Senate bill includes only a long-standing ban on using federal money for that purpose.

But will the removal of the ban stay intact in the final version? Most likely, no. The city has always ended up with a ban in place whenever the Republican party controls the House.  Unfortunately, this move by the Senate is more likely to be an attempt to give the Democrats something to bargain with later rather than an actual move to revoke the ban.