[Apologetics] Pro-Abortion activists call for backup on Obamacare

[Art Kelly]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20091111/pl_politico/29412

Abortion activists call for backup

Jonathan Allen Jonathan Allen Wed Nov 11, 3:54 pm ET 

Abortion-rights advocates are calling in the cavalry to help fight off
an anti-abortion provision House Democratic
<http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/politico/pl_politico/storytext/29412/3
4052037/SIG=11mbu2o55;_ylt=AvGzjp6C6IyYnV7qTthsCOjCw5R4;_ylu=X3oDMTFodXM
zZmpwBHBvcwM0BHNlYwN5bl9zdG9yeV9wcmludF9jb250ZW50BHNsawNob3VzZWRlbW9jcmE
-/*http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1109/29385.html>  leaders
swallowed in order to win passage of their health care reform bill. 

Laurie Rubiner, vice president of policy for the Planned Parenthood
Federation, said the tight restriction on public funding for abortions
"has completely galvanized the reproductive health community and the
women's community." 

On Tuesday, Planned Parenthood summoned 80 progressive groups to plot
strategy for keeping the anti-abortion amendment
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-/*http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1109/29393.html>  - named for
sponsors Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) and Joseph Pitts (R-Pa.) - out of a final
health care bill. 

If that doesn't work, Plan B is to rely on progressives in the House to
vote against a bill containing the language. Forty-one House Democrats
threatened to do just that in a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi
(D-Calif.), according to a report by Washington Post blogger Greg
Sargent. 

"They passed health care reform for half the nation and partial health
care reform for the rest of us," said Terry O'Neill, president of the
National Organization for Women. "We will oppose any health care bill
that includes anything like Stupak/Pitts." 

But the first battlefield is in the Senate, where Majority Leader Harry
Reid
<http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/politico/pl_politico/storytext/29412/3
4052037/SIG=12cljds21;_ylt=Aj8MZK9xzU6rEeNj_o5PobvCw5R4;_ylu=X3oDMTFlN2h
zazhoBHBvcwM2BHNlYwN5bl9zdG9yeV9wcmludF9jb250ZW50BHNsawNoYXJyeXJlaWQ-/*h
ttp://www.politico.com/livepulse/1109/Reid_Debate_to_begin_next_week.htm
l>  (D-Nev.) has yet to unveil his chamber's version of the health care
bill. It's still not entirely clear whether Reid, who has a mixed record
on abortion and a tough reelection bid next year, will include the
Stupak/Pitts provision or if abortion foes will have to try to amend it
in. Either way, there is likely to be a vote on the issue on the Senate
floor, forcing socially conservative Democrats to pick sides. 

They are already starting to get pressure from a coalition of
abortion-rights advocates and their allies in the progressive movement. 

The Planned Parenthood meeting included representatives of influential
liberal organizations
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ubjkzBHBvcwM3BHNlYwN5bl9zdG9yeV9wcmludF9jb250ZW50BHNsawNsaWJlcmFsb3JnYW4
-/*http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1109/29356.html>  like the
Service Employees International Union, MoveOn.org
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xbG5lBHBvcwM4BHNlYwN5bl9zdG9yeV9wcmludF9jb250ZW50BHNsawNtb3Zlb25vcmc-/*h
ttp://MoveOn.org> , the American Civil Liberties Union, the Human Rights
Campaign and the Center for American Progress, according to a list
provided to POLITICO. 

NARAL Pro-Choice America plans to "patch through" calls from activists
in 17 states to their senators' offices next week to lobby against the
Stupak/Pitts anti-abortion amendment in the Senate version of a health
care overhaul. The group's online petition to Reid collected 30,000
signatures in less than 24 hours, and an e-mail campaign from the
group's grass roots to lawmakers is due to start soon, according to an
official. 

NOW chapter leaders are making appointments with individual senators. In
the meantime, 53 activists showed up to picket Senate offices in the
Dirksen Building earlier this week, according to NOW President Terry
O'Neill.

With so much on the line, the abortion-rights activists recognize that
they have to mobilize quickly and forcefully to counteract Pelosi's
decision to give the anti-abortion lawmakers what they wanted in
exchange for their accession to passing the bill. 

Although abortion rights groups worked hard to give Democrats the
majorities in the House and the Senate - not to mention the White House
itself - they're reluctant to call Pelosi's decision a betrayal
<http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/politico/pl_politico/storytext/29412/3
4052037/SIG=11mmccbhu;_ylt=AtxX5QmMD.li.KLgSya_4hTCw5R4;_ylu=X3oDMTFobHV
xcGw0BHBvcwM5BHNlYwN5bl9zdG9yeV9wcmludF9jb250ZW50BHNsawNwZWxvc2k4MjE3c2Q
-/*http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1109/29305.html> .

"That's water under the bridge," said Nancy Keenan, head of NARAL
Pro-Choice America. 

Now, they're focused on ensuring that the Senate doesn't adopt the same
language
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4052037/SIG=11mlodbdg;_ylt=AqNPDVbTL6Oc_FPMchs6pyDCw5R4;_ylu=X3oDMTFpZjV
mbnA5BHBvcwMxMARzZWMDeW5fc3RvcnlfcHJpbnRfY29udGVudARzbGsDc2VuYXRlZG9lc24
4/*http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1109/29351.html> , which would
make it very difficult to keep the provision out of a House-Senate
conference agreement because Senate rules strongly favor retaining
language adopted by both chambers. 

The amendment would prohibit federal funds from being used for the
purchase of plans that cover abortion in a new health care exchange.
Abortion rights activists say that it is more restrictive than the
existing Hyde amendment, which prohibits direct federal funding of
abortions, and that it would strip away rights women currently have.
Abortion critics counter that leaving out the amendment would force
taxpayers to subsidize abortion. 

They say that under Stupak/Pitts, insurers would be free to offer
separate plans: One for individuals who get subsidies that does not
cover abortion services and one for those who do not receive federal
help that does cover abortion. 

"The amendment explicitly allows a given insurance company to sell
policies that cover abortion, and also to participate in the exchange
and sell policies that do not cover elective abortion to federally
subsidized customers," Douglas Johnson of the National Right to Life
Committee wrote to POLITICO in an e-mail. 

But abortion rights groups say the ban would inevitably stop women who
buy insurance through the exchange without the help of federal subsidies
from accessing plans that cover abortion because it would prohibit plans
that cover abortion from pooling individuals who get federal subsidies
with those who do not. 

Kim Gandy, a Harvard University Institute of Politics fellow who is the
immediate past president of NOW, said she thinks her side will prevail. 

"My sense is [Pelosi] made the only decision she could," Gandy said.
"It's not a sacrifice yet, and I don't think it will be." 

Still, the abortion-rights groups have a fight on their hands, and
Democratic leaders - faced with enough threatened defections to kill the
bill in the House if they choose either side - have many strategic
decisions left ahead
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j/*http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1109/29281.html>  on the
abortion issue if they hope to enact a health care reform bill in this
Congress. 

Senators, including Reid, are in for an earful. 

"It was a wake-up call across the country," Keenan said. 

Leaders of abortion-rights groups met with high-ranking White House
officials to discuss the health care bill on Wednesday. 

"As part of our ongoing outreach surrounding health insurance reform,
staff met with today with representatives of the women's rights
community," White House spokesman Reid Cherlin said. "Staff will also be
meeting in coming days with leaders from communities of faith and other
groups involved in the effort." 

ABC's Jake Tapper, who first reported on their meeting with chief of
staff Rahm Emanuel and other senior advisers to the president, wrote
that the abortion-rights advocates had a "frank exchange" with
administration officials, according to a source who participated. 

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l/*http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1109/29430.html> 





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