We would bet a million dollars that what you would consider a medically necessary procedure when you are seriously ill and need expensive treatment would differ greatly from the government’s “Advisory Panel” charged with deciding what treatments you will actually get.
A lot will be happening on healthcare next week. Not satisfied that the American people have soundly rejected their healthcare plans, that includes government-funding of abortion, President Obama, Harry Reid & Nancy Pelosi are back to pushing their own agenda hard.
President Obama is meeting with GOP leaders next Thursday, Feb. 25th, which will be aired live, to talk about coming up with a bi-partisan healthcare plan. But before that he will be releasing his own reconciliation healthcare bill and posting it online either late this weekend or Monday morning. The President wants this bill to be the starting point of negotiations during the GOP healthcare meeting.
Has Obama mentioned abortion? Of course he hasn’t. But here’s the thing. Abortion HAS to be addressed somehow in the healthcare bill. If there is no specific exclusion of abortion written into the bill, like the Stupak Amendment did, then you and I will be funding abortion through healthcare. Period.
Obama knows it. Pelosi knows it. Reid knows it. And Americans know it too. We’ve written on several national polls showing that Americans overwhelmingly disapprove of government-funding of abortion.
Thanks to the heroic efforts of Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI), Nancy Pelosi is going to have a heck of a hard time passing a healthcare bill in the House that doesn’t include his amendment.
Be vigilant. Read the new bill. And contact your legislators. Like we have said, healthcare reform isn’t over yet. Obama and his allies are desperate for a healthcare bill and they are desperate to pay back all the support they have received from the abortion industry. And from the looks for it, they will do anything whatsoever to get it.
I am not for a moment about to suggest that this is the way God intended us to interpret this, but for those who happened to attend daily Mass on the Friday before the MA special election and the anniversary of Obama’s inauguration, you were treated to this story about how the people complained against Samuel and demanded that they be given a king to rule over them as other nations have.
God, through Samuel, warned the people that if this were to happen, the king would quickly use his authority to tax them, take their property, oppress them with labor, and make their lives generally miserable, and that eventually they would complain to God to remove the king, and God would not listen to their complaints.
But, the people would not listen and insisted that they be given a king. And so, God told Samuel to give them exactly what they want. And wouldn’t you know – eventually they complained to God about the king. Funny how that happens.
And it is also funny how history just keeps repeating itself even into our day – when even in our free republic we get caught up in the moment and cry out for a king of sorts; someone to rule over us in a way where we don’t have to worry about anything. He will provide everything for us. And before we know it we get exactly what we wished for only to regret that moment of weakness.
If you ask me, that reading just happened to be in the right place at the right time for Americans to reflect on the choices we make through our voting, and the discernment we should take when deciding.
In fact, that whole series of readings was interesting given the events of the world. On Wednesday, January 20 – the anniversary of Obama’s inauguration – daily Mass-goers woke up to the news that MA had elected a republican senator, and were then treated to the story of David and Goliath for the first reading.
Just sayin’….
The New York Times today has a fascinating profile of Rep. Bart Stupak of Michigan. Most readers of St. Michael Society are aware that Rep. Stupak is a pro-life hero, especially during the healthcare debate. His principled stand in the House of Representatives resulted in the passage of a truly pro-life amendment, which is attached to the House healthcare bill. The profile details the many attacks, some personal, hurled at Rep. Stupak.
Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for my sake: Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets that were before you. – Matthew 5:11-12
Now the House and Senate will attempt to reconcile the two bills passed in each chamber. Rep. Stupak claims he has 10 or 11 other pro-life Democrats willing to stand with him to ensure that if any legislation passes it will be pro-life. Look for the attacks and pressure to escalate from pro-abortion forces. Leadership will attempt to pry away votes with bribes, threats and attacks. Projects and funding will be dangled in front of their noses. Others will be threatened with removal of key committee assignments.
For what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul? – Matthew 16:26
But for the special few, among them Rep. Stupak, the personal attacks will come. Let’s pray for them. Pray that they remain strong and courageous in this fight.
Saint Michael the Archangel,
defend us in battle.
Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray;
and do Thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host -
by the Divine Power of God -
cast into hell, satan and all the evil spirits,
who roam throughout the world seeking the ruin of souls.
Amen.
Two opinion pieces published today hit the nail on the head when it comes to abortion and healthcare.
Four powerhouse pro-life leaders, Dr. Charmaine Yoest (AUL), Marjorie Dannenfelser (SBA List), Kristan Hawkins (Students for Life) and David Bereit (40 Days for Life), call out Planned Parenthood and the rest of the abortion industry in today’s Washington Times for actively trying to mislead the public on the merits of the Stupak Amendment:
Earlier this month, New York Democratic Rep. Nita Lowey claimed that the Stupak-Pitts Amendment “puts new restrictions on women’s access to abortion coverage in the private health insurance market even when they would pay premiums with their own money.” Just days later, PolitiFact.com issued an analysis and said her comments were “false.”
Planned Parenthood’s cover has been blown. Before the vote on Stupak-Pitts, there were no uproars from the abortion lobby about government funding of abortion in the health care bill. There were no send-your-legislator-a-hanger campaigns. Why? Because they were hoping this issue would slip under the radar and that the bill would pass without any specific exclusion of abortion, which would ensure that abortion would certainly be funded by the government.
Read the whole thing here: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jan/06/abortion-funding-fiight-far-from-over/.
And Kristan Hawkins has her own piece at CNSNews.com today as well talking about the Mikulski amendment that passed in the Senate that would provide government funding for “preventative healthcare.” Kristan makes the case that preventative healthcare would include abortion – and she has the knowledge to back it up.
As a mother of a son with cystic fibrosis, a genetic life-threatening disease, and pregnant with another son, who has a 25 percent chance of having the disease, I know the first “preventative” abortions will be performed on children diagnosed prenatally with incurable, expensive-to-treat genetic diseases.Already, over 90 percent of babies prenatally diagnosed with Downs Syndrome are aborted. That’s certainly a “preventative” service.
Kristan has become quite an expert on rationing of care in the healthcare bills and runs the website www.HealthcareForGunner.com to raise awareness.
See the full opinion piece here: http://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/article/59320
In this oh-so-transparent Obama Administration, the Democrats in Congress have decided to (most likely) forgo a formal conference to merge the Senate and House healthcare bills. Instead they doing something called a “ping pong” conference. Sounds fun, right? Well, for the Democrats who really, really, really want to get a healthcare bill passed, it’s certainly better than doing a formal merging of the bills because that would involve lots of procedural hurdles in the Senate and give Republicans more ways than one to hold up the horrific bill.
In a ping pong scenario, leaders from each chamber will go back and forth with the bills until they come to a final bill that they are happy with. It’s very much a backroom deal process with little or no input from the Republicans. Talking Points Memo has more on the logistics here.
However, someone is going to have to deal with Rep. Bart Stupak and the abortion issue. The Senate version of the bill doesn’t have the Stupak language and therefore funds abortion with government money. Stupak has made it clear that he plans to hold the line in House and not allow a bill through without his amendment, which prohibits government funding of abortion.
Quite a few well-known pundits are weighing in including Ed Morrissey at HotAir, Melissa Clouthier and Philip Klein, and can give you more on what they think will happen.
In the end, this ping pong game will have to end with some final bill that will be voted on in both the House and the Senate. The Democrats are willing to do anything to give President Obama a bill, any bill, and at any price.
It’s not too late though. We’ve heard from many sources that people can’t get through on the phones or by email to their Representatives and Senators so the Stop the Abortion Mandate coalition is urging people to visit their Members’ district offices this week while Congress is at home. Download the holiday recess kit here: http://bit.ly/850wLU.
Have tried call or email your Senator or Congressman and either the lines were busy 24/7 or your emails bounced back when you tried to tell them that you don’t want government run healthcare that pays for abortion on demand?
That’s what Stop the Abortion Mandate (STAM) leaders were hearing. So they created the Holiday Recess Toolkit for pro-lifers and others who are having trouble reaching their Congressmen and Senators. STAM is urging members to go to district offices to meet with their elected officials and staff while they are home for winter recess. The Senate doesn’t come to DC until January 18th while the House comes back next week.
We highly recommend this thoughtful kit – it contains a good script when calling to set up an office visit, talking points, questions to ask and background on abortion funding in healthcare. You can download it here: http://bit.ly/850wLU.
Erick Erickson at Red State is reporting a troubling late addition to the Health Care Legislation. Quote from Red State:
Reid has slipped in a provision into the health care legislation prohibiting future Congresses from changing any regulations imposed on Americans by the Independent Medicare [note: originally referred to as "medical"] Advisory Boards, which are commonly called the “Death Panels.
One more reason to work to defeat this terrible legislation. Its important for Catholics not to give up and continue to let Congress know that this cannot stand. Here is a story that quotes the Bishops and other prolife leaders.
We at St Michael Society ask that you take a moment during this busy week to join the fight. Stop the Abortion Mandate has some great tools that you can use.
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Congressman Bart Stupak, a Catholic Democrat from Michigan, is going on the World Over Live tonight with Raymond Arroyo on EWTN at 8pm to talk about his meeting this week at the White House regarding abortion funding in healthcare.
Get ready for fireworks.
Rep. Stupak isn’t backing down. A couple quotes we’ve obtained from the interview tonight:
STUPAK’S MESSAGE TO THE PRESIDENT: So what’s your preference Mr. President? Do you want a healthcare bill or do you want to fight on abortion? They’re not going together.
Listen here: Stupak – Mr President
THE BOTTOM LINE: “If it does not have the language we want, as some leadership asked me yesterday, what happens? I said Bill’s dead. It’s going nowhere. He said: ‘how can you say that you haven’t seen it?’ I said, ‘I’m just telling you where the line is and we’re not crossing that line.’ And they said: “You’re serious?” I said, “Don’t underestimate me. You did that once. We’re serious, we need that language.”
Listen here: Stupak – The language we want
The World Over airs live on EWTN at 8PM Friday and Saturday at 1AM, Sunday at 4PM, Monday at 10AM and 11PM.
In her column today at World Net Daily, pro-life blogger Jill Stanek tackles the mumbo jumbo procedures of the Senate that are important to the pro-life cause.
Basically, Senate Majority Leader Democrat Harry Reid is pushing to get the Senate version of healthcare to the floor for a vote but he can’t just bring it to the floor and make Senators vote on it. He has to go through a few procedures (votes) to get the bill to the floor. But there’s lots of problems with that.
1) The bill is still in “concept” so Reid has to bring a “shell bill” (an empty bill) to the floor and then substitute his yet-to-be-written-and-unveiled bill into it by a vote.
2) To get the shell bill to the floor itself, he has to have a vote on that, which is called a cloture vote and he needs 60 votes to pass it. Jill says that “This is the first and very important choke point to stop the Senate’s health-care bill from proceeding.”
So if Reid can’t pass the cloture vote, then he can’t even get the big bill on healthcare to the floor. This is important.
This is the first and very important choke point to stop the Senate’s health-care bill from proceeding. I’m told that all Republican senators, including Olympia Snowe, are planning to vote “no” on cloture. That means Reid will need 60 bodies physically present who will also vote “yes.” But several Democrat senators and Sen. Joe Lieberman are squishy, with various concerns in addition to publicly funded abortion.
These senators are our targets: Bayh, Byrd, Casey, Collins, Conrad, Dorgan, T. Johnson, Landrieu, Lincoln, McCaskill, Nelson, Pryor, Reid, Snowe and Warner.
We must pound them with calls. The ideal would be to shut down Senate phone lines.
The message is:
Vote “No” on any health-care bill or procedure that does not include the Stupak pro-life amendment at a minimum and that will protect and preserve life both young and old.
Contact your Senator here: http://bit.ly/2jE5Ie. It’s important to call YOUR own Senator and let them know you are a constituent.
Jill has lots of other helpful info in her column today including the incorrect talking points that the pro-choicers are using when they say that the Stupak-Pitts amendment goes beyond the status quo on government funding of abortion. Hint: they are way off base. See Jill’s full column here: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=116382
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