At the daily press briefing yesterday, Fred Lucas of CNSNews.com asked President Obama’s press secretary, Robert Gibbs, about abortion funding in healthcare reform:
Lucas: Thanks, Robert. It’s a question on health care, actually; two questions. First, in a letter to senators last week, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said that, quoting, “So far the health reform bills considered in the committee, including the new Senate Finance Committee bill, have not met the President’s challenge of barring the use of federal dollars for abortion.” Is that statement wrong?
MR. GIBBS: Well, I don’t want to get me in trouble at church, but I would mention there’s a law that precludes the use of federal funds for abortion that isn’t going to be changed in these health care bills.
L:ucas: There have been, though, several amendments that would explicitly bar abortions, that would therefore reject it, some of those amendments by Democrats –
MR. GIBBS: Again, there’s a fairly well documented federal law that prevents it.
Gibbs is either blissfully ignorant or is outright being deceptive. There have been a slew of stories on how abortion is paid for through the current proposals of healthcare reform legislation. The Associated Press, TIME Magazine, and FactCheck.org, just to name a few, have all confirmed the government will fund abortions and that the Hyde Amendment does not pertain to healthcare reform.
The Susan B. Anthony List explains how politicians, and now Obama’s main spokesman, are hiding behind the Hyde Amendment when asked about abortion funding in the healthcare bill through this short and humorous video.
And Stop the Abortion Mandate has a chart that clearly shows the Hyde Amendment only applies to funds allocated to Medicaid through the Health & Human Services Department, not through the new revenue stream that is created by the healthcare reform proposals.
And National Right to Life and LifeNews.com also clearly explain why Hyde does not pertain to healthcare reform.
Robert Gibbs needs to be truthful about the government funding abortions in healthcare. But then he’d have to face the huge majority of Americans who oppose funding abortion with government money.
