By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
Prolife leaders across the nation are reacting to President Obama’s new health care proposal which will force taxpayers to fund abortion, making it impossible for Catholics to support his plan.
“President Obama’s healthcare proposal released Monday preserved the abortion funding provisions adopted by the Senate just before Christmas,” said Brian Burch, president of CatholicVoteAction.org.
“These provisions force taxpayers to fund insurance companies that cover abortion, while also expanding mechanisms whereby taxpayers could be forced to directly fund abortion itself.”
In addition to keeping the same abortion provisions as the Senate bill, the president’s plan will actually expand abortion coverage by asking for $11 billion for “community health centers” which can easily be directed to groups like Planned Parenthood.
“Two pro-abortion groups, the Reproductive Health Access Project and the Abortion Access Project, are already actively campaigning for Community Health Centers to perform elective abortions,” says Douglas Johnson, legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC). “In short, the Senate bill would allow direct federal funding of abortion on demand through Community Health Centers.”
Reacting to this same provision, Concerned Women for America’s president Wendy Wright said the president’s plan is nothing more than a “re-hash of the Senate and House bills with a higher price tag” that pays off his friends, such as Planned Parenthoood, with sweetheart deals.
“Cecile Richards, Planned Parenthood’s president, visited Obama’s White House numerous times in the past year, starting on the day he was inaugurated, as the administration was crafting its health care plan,” she says.
This is in spite of the polls showing an overwhelming majority of Americans who oppose the use of taxpayer dollars for abortion.
“Americans do not want to pay for someone else’s abortion, and we don’t want abortionists getting rich off our tax dollars,” Ms. Wright said.
But that hasn’t stopped the president from adding even more abortion coverage to his plan.
“The President’s package also includes Sen. Barbara Mikulski’s (D-Md.) amendment, which would allow the administration to define abortions as ‘preventative health services’ and force private insurers to cover them,” writes Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council. “As it’s currently written, the $6 billion in grants for health co-ops doesn’t include a single abortion restriction–nor does the Indian Health Services program.”
The good news is that there are several ways to stop this runaway gravy train for the abortion industry.
According to Mr. Johnson, there may not be enough votes in the House to pass any plan that contains this much abortion coverage.
“A substantial number of pro-life Democrats in the House, including some lawmakers whose names have not been mentioned on the various published lists, have told their constituents that they are not going to vote for the Senate-passed bill because of the abortion problems. For pro-life Democrats, President Obama’s proposal only makes matters worse.”
The only “fix” would be adoption of the Stupak-Pitts Amendment which would eliminate all abortion coverage from health care reform.
Another option would be for pro-life lawmakers to appeal to the public’s animosity toward abortion coverage by standing up to the president at this Thursday’s summit.
“With the health care summit just days away, the onus is on Republicans,” Mr. Perkins said. “They can expose the President’s credibility gap on abortion and kill the bill–or sit silent and risk the momentum that got them there.”
© All Rights Reserved, Living His Life Abundantly®/Women of Grace® http://www.womenofgrace.com
