By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
President Barack Obama has been receiving complaints from pro-abortion groups who are upset that he removed a provision in the economic stimulus plan that would have provided more funding to these groups through contraception programs.
LIfeNews.com obtained a copy of an “urgent” e-mail sent by Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards to her group’s supporters about the move.
“I’m stunned,” she wrote. “We’ve just confirmed news reports that provisions to expand access to affordable family planning will be stripped from the economic stimulus bill. Removing this provision is a betrayal of millions of low-income women.”
Richards asks her supporters to call the White House and tell President Obama they are upset with his decision to remove the provision from the bill.
She also claimed that pro-life advocates deceived the president by “spreading false information about this commonsense bill.”
“I was even more shocked to read today that congressional leaders have taken these false arguments seriously and will remove family planning provisions from the stimulus bill,” Richards said about the decision not to send $200 million more to her abortion business.
Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women, is also upset. However, she told Politico that she believes the provision will be restored in another bill or stand-alone legislation — and Congressional Democrats will likely have the numbers to approve it.
“I think the [Obama administration] should have kept it in there,” Gandy told the news site. “But in their political calculus they felt this was something that would pass Congress rather easily as a stand-alone measure and didn’t think was worth fighting for in the stimulus.”
Mary Jane Gallagher, president and CEO of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, noted how Obama already overturned the Mexico City Policy and how he promised more pro-abortion moves down the road.
“The president had a tough choice, and he told us he was going to make them and we have to stick with him,” she said. “I’m sticking with him because I fully expect really quick action on this.”
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