Journalist rips 'pro-life' Republicans for seeking to cut infant nutrition program

While discussing the looming sequestration on MSNBC, journalist David Cay Boyle Johnston slammed Republicans for supporting cuts to a federal program that provides food to the infants of poor mothers.

"Six hundred thousand pregnant women and mothers of small children will be cut from the [Women, Infants and Children (WIC) nutrition program]," he said. "The Republicans are always telling us about their reverence for life. Really? They are going to have 600,000 poor women and children not have proper food."

"There is a lifetime effect on development, especially mental development, if you don't have proper nutrition in the womb and when you're an infant, but they are determined to cut those poor children -- who are helpless -- out of good nutrition."

The sequester would cut 9.3 percent of WIC, resulting in hundreds of thousands of women and children losing access to the program. WIC provided aid to roughly 9 million Americans in 2012.

Republicans have previously proposed cutting $832 million from the nutrition program for low-income women and children, along with cuts to other food assistance programs.

The sequestration was part of a political deal to raise the federal debt ceiling in 2011. The across-the-board budget cuts to domestic and defense programs were intended to be so painful that Republicans and Democrats would be forced to compromise on a budget.

Watch video, courtesy of MSNBC, below:

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy