Anti LGBT+ Republican representative opposed coronavirus relief bill because it ‘redefined family’

He claimed the bill would allow the government to ‘spend up to a billion dollars effectively on state-sponsored abortions, state-funded abortions’

A Republican Representative who voted against the coronavirus relief bill cited ”redefining family” and possible funding of abortion as his reasons for standing against the bill.

Rep Andy Biggs discussed his reasons for voting against the virus relief bill on a radio program produced by the Family Research Council, a pro-life and pro-marriage organisation.

The bill seeks to provide paid medical leave, free Covid–19 testing and increased unemployment insurance across the country.

He said: “Two provisions that have nothing to do with the coronavirus are basically thrown into this thing and that’s just par for the course for the left.”

Bigs was opposed to the bill’s definition of a committed relationship and abortion The Hill reported.

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The bill defines committed relationships to include same-sex relationships that are granted legal recognition in the category of two individuals, 18 or over, who share responsibility for their common welfare as the other’s sole domestic partner.

Also, the definition of ‘child’ included any “biological, foster, or adopted child, a stepchild, a child of a domestic partner, a legal ward, or a child of a person standing in loco parentis.

Bigs is a staunch anti-LGBT+ marriage campaigner, having previously served as a policy advisor to a religious group labelled as an anti-gay “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

“They’ve redefined family for the first time in a piece of federal legislation to include committed relationships and the problem with that, of course, is it’s really hard to define a committed relationship,” Mr Biggs said.

According to The Hill, Mr Biggs and other republicans are also critical that the bill does not include the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits the federal government from covering the costs of abortions except in very rare cases.

“They put in a billion dollars that wasn’t subject to the Hyde amendment which means you could spend up to a billion dollars effectively on state-sponsored abortions, state-funded abortions,” Mr Biggs said on Fox News.

This money is actually designated for laboratory claims, it’s just that the bill did not explicitly include Hyde Amendment language that would say the money couldn’t apply to abortion services.

An online fact-checker has stated that there is “no evidence” that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “was sneaking any funding toward abortion services in the bill” after an article circulated on Facebook falsely implied this.

The Hill reported that the bill has since been amended so that paid leave is only available to families who’s small children’s care facilities or schools are closed due to the pandemic.

Forty Republicans voted against the coronavirus relief bill passed by the House on 14 March.