By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
The Obama transition team shocked a coalition of dozens of pro-abortion groups when it decided to publish the 55-page “wish list” they sent to the president-elect with the hopes he’ll try to achieve these goals over the next four years. Pro-life groups responded to the list by demanding “No abortion industry bailout!” while the abortion groups voiced their dismay over having their agenda revealed.
And it is quite an extensive agenda asking for everything from the passage of the radical Freedom of Choice Act to expanding taxpayer funding of organizations that provide abortion services overseas.
The list gives Obama directives for his first 100 days as well as long-term goals to be achieved over the course of four years. These items include:
• Repeal the Hyde Amendment which prohibits the use of federal taxpayer dollars for abortion.
• Make abortion a mandate in health care reform.
• Pay for abortions for Medicaid women, federal employees and their dependents, residents of the District of Columbia, Peace Corps volunteers, Native-American women and women in federal prisons.
• Restore funding to the UNFPA (an organization which is involved in China’s one-child policy which uses forced abortion and sterilization).
• Overturn the Mexico City Policy so that organizations that promote and perform abortions overseas can receive federal tax dollars.
• Pack the U.S. Supreme Court and lower courts with judicial candidates committed to abortion.
• Reduce abstinence funding.
• Eliminate information on federal websites which cite medical and mental health problems for women who undergo abortions.
In response to the wish list, the president of the Susan B. Anthony List, an organization that seeks to promote pro-life women in public office, has announced a nationwide grassroots campaign to fight the “abortion industry bailout.”
“President-elect Barack Obama spoke of finding ‘common ground’ on abortion policy, but abortion advocacy groups clearly see an open door,” Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser told Christiannewswire.com.
“After a decade of commonsense restrictions on taxpayer funding, the abortion industry thinks it deserves a bailout from President-Elect Obama. Today the Susan B. Anthony List launched its ‘Stop the Abortion Bailout’ campaign to mobilize thousands of activists across the country. Americans will send letters to their Senators with the goal of securing the 41 votes necessary to sustain a Senate filibuster of the abortion bailout. We look forward to delivering the votes Senator McConnell needs to ensure our hard-earned taxpayer dollars stay out of abortionists’ coffers, especially since national abortion numbers are already on the decline.”
The matter is even more urgent since President-Elect Obama recently appointed several abortion advocates to his staff, including EMILY’s List Executive Director Ellen Moran as White House Communications Director and former NARAL Legal Director Dawn Johnsen to his Justice Department Review Team. Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards was also named immediately after the election as part of an informal, trusted “kitchen cabinet” of advisors to the Obama transition team.
Susan B. Anthony List activists can send letters to their Senators as part of the “Stop the Abortion Bailout” campaign at www.sba-list.org/abortionbailout. The goal of the campaign is to secure the 41 votes necessary to sustain a filibuster against measures promoting federal taxpayer funding of abortion. The Susan B. Anthony List will deliver letters to Senators and pass along the names of Americans opposing the abortion bailout to pro-life Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
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