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There’s a lot of optimism that D.C. might finally get a measure of autonomy in how it spends its money. But it won’t come without a fight, if it comes at all.

The Post’s Mike DeBonis reported last Friday that pro-life groups have already said that they will work to oppose any D.C. budget autonomy bill that doesn’t include an explicit prohibition on the use of local funds for abortions:

A top official for the National Right to Life Committee, the best-organized antiabortion lobby on the Hill, said the group’s position is that abortion and the District budget are inextricably linked. Thus it opposes any budget autonomy bill that doesn’t include a ban on publicly funded abortions.

Douglas Johnson, the committee’s legislative director, said in an interview Thursday that his group is prepared to “score” any House floor vote on a budget autonomy bill that does not include strong abortion language — “at a minimum, a permanent prohibition on taxpayer-funded abortions in the federal district,” he said.

Last year Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) offered a budget autonomy bill with the abortion restriction included, but after Mayor Vince Gray rejected it, he offered to work with city officials on a clean bill. (Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman is working on his own version in the Senate.) But last week’s news seems to make it clear that a clean bill would have few Republican friends on the Hill.

If this method sounds familier, it should—it’s been used before against D.C. In 2009, the NRA similarly threatened to score a committee vote on legislation that would have granted D.C. a voting seat in the House. The legislation eventually died when an amendment was added that would have gutted the city’s gun laws.

Abortion in D.C. has long been a flashpoint for social conservatives and a bargaining chip used against the city when it has asked for the same rights every other jurisdiction enjoys. In January, Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) introduced legislation that would prohibit all abortions in D.C. after 20 weeks; in early 2011 the new Republican leadership reinstated longstanding prohibitions on the use of local funds for abortions after they had been lifted by Democrats.