title:  ‘Pro-Life’ GOP Refuses To Help Zika Infected Babies
text: The world is scrambling to deal with fallout from the spread of the Zika virus, the global pandemic which appears to be linked to birth defects in children when pregnant women are infected. President Obama has requested that America help lead the global effort to fight the infection   which has reached our shores. Republicans, who describe themselves as  pro-life,  are resisting.House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) is taking the lead among Republicans in refusing to help.In a letter to President Obama s budget director, Shaun Donovan, Rogers noted the Department of Health and Human Services has $1.4 billion allocated for the Ebola fight of 2014. And the State Department has $1.3 billion left over. These funds can and should be prioritized to meet the most pressing needs of mounting a rapid and full response to Zika,  Rogers and two other Republican committee members wrote.The White House will likely ask that  some  Ebola funds be  repurposed  for the anti-Zika effort but not so much that it would  undermine  the response to Ebola, Earnest said, adding that amount  would not be sufficient to take on what we believe is a pretty serious threat from the Zika virus. Strangely Republicans are arguing that funds already being used to fight the Ebola outbreak now be used against Zika, instead of a separate request. But these are the same Republicans who attacked the Obama administration s response to that outbreak.Along with their allies in the media, many on the right said Obama was exposing America to Ebola, with some even floating the conspiracy theory that Obama wanted a mass infection of Americans with the Ebola virus.Instead, the administration s response to that outbreak has now been cited as a model of America using its superpower status to fight a global problem. Ebola infections are down to nonexistent in many of the African nations where it killed thousands, in part due to the global alliance organized by President Obama.There were no outbreaks of the disease in America, and in fact Americans infected with the virus survived and are now Ebola-free, thanks to American doctors. At the same time Republicans and conservatives were harsh in their condemnation of the Obama response.The Obama administration is asking for funds to show American leadership, to help the babies Republicans profess to care so much about, and again they are dropping the ball.Featured image via YouTube