[Apologetics] National Right to Life: Democratic leaders keep abortion in health care bills

Wed Sep 30 22:24:20 EDT 2009

________________________________

From: nrlc at nrlc.org [mailto:nrlc at nrlc.org] 
Sent: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 6:03 PM
To: Art Kelly
Subject: NRLC: Democrat leaders keep abortion in health care bills

<http://stoptheabortionagenda.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/0
93009-fedleg-update.jpg> 

NATIONAL RIGHT TO LIFE SAYS NEW EVENTS IN CONGRESS

FURTHER UNCOVER PRO-ABORTION AGENDA IN HEALTH CARE BILLS

WASHINGTON (September 30, 2009) -- Events this week in Congress provide
fresh proof that top Democratic leaders in Congress are pushing forward
with plans to establish massive new programs that would pay for elective
abortions and subsidize insurance coverage of abortions -- which, if
achieved, would break from decades of federal policy. 

"Bills currently advancing in Congress would establish direct federal
funding of elective abortion, and tax subsidies for private insurance
that covers elective abortions -- both drastic breaks from longstanding
federal policy," commented Douglas Johnson, legislative director for the
National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of right-to-life
organizations in all 50 states. "Ongoing events on Capitol Hill
demonstrate the hollowness of President Obama's public assurances that
he does not seek government funding of abortion."

The Senate Finance Committee today continued a series of meetings to
amend the "America's Healthy Future Act," a health care restructuring
bill proposed by Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mt.). The bill has a number of
major abortion-related problems. Most of today's abortion-related debate
in the committee focused on a proposed new program that would use tax
money to help purchase private health insurance for about 19 million
Americans. The bill specifically authorizes the use of these federal
funds to pay premiums on private plans that cover elective abortions --
a departure from longstanding federal policy
<http://www.nrlc.org/AHC/PolitiFactRebuttal.html> .

Pro-life Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) pointed out that federal subsidies
for coverage of elective abortions are not currently allowed under
Medicaid, the Federal Employees Health Benefits program, or other
federal health programs. Hatch offered an amendment, backed by NRLC,
that would have prohibited federal funds from subsidizing plans that
cover elective abortions, but would have allowed insurers to sell
abortion coverage through separate supplemental policies not subsidized
by federal funds. The Hatch Amendment failed, 10-13. Baucus and all
other Democrats on the committee opposed the Hatch Amendment, except for
Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND), who supported it. All of the Republicans on
the committee supported the Hatch Amendment, except for Senator Olympia
Snowe (R-Maine), who opposed it.

By an identical roll call, the committee also rejected another Hatch
Amendment that would have codified the Hyde-Weldon Amendment, which is a
temporary law prohibiting any level of government from discriminating
against health-care providers that do not wish to participate in
providing abortions.

On July 15, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP)
Committee approved a different health care bill (S. 1679), which also
contains provisions that would result in sweeping pro-abortion mandates
and government subsidies for elective abortion. NRLC's Johnson
commented, "Today's Finance Committee votes mean that the combined bill
that will reach the Senate floor in a few weeks surely will contain
provisions that would result in both pro-abortion federal mandates and
huge federal abortion subsidies. However, the full Senate must vote on
the pro-abortion subsidies, and other pro-abortion components as well."

Meanwhile, in the House, Reps. Bart Stupak (D-Mi.), Joseph Pitts
(R-Pa.), and 181 other members of the U.S. House on September 28 sent a
letter <http://www.nrlc.org/ahc/StupakPittsLetterSept282009.pdf>  to
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca.), pointing out that the health care bill
approved in the House Energy and Commerce Committee (H.R. 3200),
including an amendment offered by Rep. Lois Capps (D-Ca.)
<http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/healthcare/59985-the-truth-about
-the-truth-about-the-capps-amendment> , "radically departs from the
current federal government policy of not paying for elective abortion or
subsidizing plans that cover abortion." The letter notes, among other
things, that the Capps language "explicitly authorizes the federal
government (the Department of Health and Human Services) to directly
fund elective abortions, with federal (public) funds drawn on a federal
Treasury account," through the proposed "public plan." 

The signers -- 25 Democrats and 158 Republicans -- urged Pelosi to allow
a vote on the Stupak-Pitts Amendment to prohibit coverage of elective
abortions by the public plan and subsidies for private plans that cover
elective abortions. Seven other House Democrats have sent Pelosi similar
letters in recent days, for a total of 32 Democrats.

In response, on September 29 Rep. Capps sent Pelosi a letter in which
she argued that the proposed public plan really would not be paying for
abortions because "money is transmitted to a private contractor who then
reimburses physicians." Johnson called Capps' argument "truly laughable
-- it is like arguing that it is not the government paying for the
abortions if the government sends the payment via the Internet."

In reality, Johnson said, "The proposed public plan will be entirely a
branch of the federal government, all of its funds will be federal funds
<http://www.nrlc.org/AHC/NRLCmemoFederalFundsnotPrivateFunds.html> , and
when it pays for abortions, that will be direct government funding of
abortion."

Johnson also noted that the nearly united opposition to the Hatch
Amendment by Senate Finance Committee Democrats, and the continued
resistance by the House Democratic leadership to allowing a vote on the
Stupak-Pitts Amendment, "support our theory that President Obama is
misleading the public when he says he does not want federal dollars used
for abortion. In an attempt to keep his 2007 promises to Planned
Parenthood
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cqww8jmizug&feature=player_embedded#t=21
> , the President is trying to smuggle sweeping pro-abortion policies
into law behind smokescreens
<http://www.nrlc.org/AHC/Advisory090809.html>  of contrived language,
verbal misdirection, and outright misrepresentation."

For further information:
Douglas Johnson
Legislative Director
National Right to Life Committee (NRLC)
Washington, D.C.
202-626-8820
Legfederal at aol.com	  	 To contact us by mail:
National Right to Life, Inc.
512 10th St., NW
Washington, DC 20004-1401

http://www.nrlc.org/ahc
http://stoptheabortionagenda.com <http://stoptheabortionagenda.com/> 

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