Monday, July 20, 2009

Obama Pushes a Radical Abortion Plan

Now is the time for Pro-Life advocates to push back. Tony Perkins, Family Research Council Action, has the details.

Abortion Will Be the Rule Without Exceptions

Experts from both sides are waking up to what we all knew already - that is without specific exclusions, forcing taxpayers to fund abortions will become the norm under the current health care plans being discussed in Congress right now. The latest admission comes from White House budget director Peter Orszag, who yesterday told Fox News Sunday that the White House is not looking to remove abortion coverage under any government plan being discussed in Congress. Mr. Orszag's comments came just two days after 20 pro-life Democrats sent a letter, headed up by Pro-Life Caucus chairman Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), to the House Democratic Leadership letting them know that the signatories "cannot support any health care reform proposal unless it explicitly excludes abortion from the scope of any government-defined or subsidized health insurance plan."

With the House health care bill (H.R. 3200) getting more and more criticism from both sides of the aisle, every single vote will be important in this debate in helping to highlight the importance of the pro-life concerns in the bill. Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) has highlighted in a letter to his colleagues the public comments of officials like President Barack Obama and pro-abortion groups, excited that the new health care plan will definitely cover abortion - unless we move to stop them. Seventy-one percent of Americans do not want to pay for abortion nor have their employers provide health care that pays for abortion, according to a November 2008 Zogby poll. Eighty-seven percent of American adults in an April survey by The Polling Company said it is important to "make sure that healthcare professionals in America are not forced to participate in procedures and practices to which they have moral objections." Clearly, under its current form, health care legislation without specific exclusions would fund and mandate abortion coverage, trump state pro-life laws and undermine healthcare workers' conscience rights.

Additional Resources
Rep. Chris Smith's letter to colleagues
FRCA Let to Energy and Commerce for Health Care Markup
It's Not An Option