Abortion is still in the healthcare bill. What are pro-lifers doing about it?

Posted on October 15, 2009 by KHernandez

Not holding back, that’s for sure. If any of the current healthcare bills pass as proposed, it will be the largest expansion of abortion since Roe v. Wade, according to National Right to Life Committee.

Many pro-life groups have put the rest of their agendas on hold to focus solely on healthcare. Several organizations formed the Stop the Abortion Mandate coalition in the summer, which held a historical webcast with 19 pro-life leaders and over 36,000 activists. The Family Research Council built on that success and had another webcast a week later with over 70,000 participants.

CatholicVote’s action center CatholicAction parodied a Hollywood video/PSA that had celebrities endorsing current healthcare reform proposals. We just love the spirit of CatholicVote ads and the creative genius behind their work.

The Susan B. Anthony List created a great video to show that politicians are just hiding behind the Hyde Amendment when they say that abortion isn’t included in healthcare legislation. In reality, the Hyde Amendment, which has to be renewed every year, doesn’t even apply to healthcare funds, only Medicaid.

Americans United for Life president Charmaine Yoest has a great column in today’s Wall Street Journal entitled “Tax Dollars Shouldn’t Fund Abortion.” She talks about how current legislation would be breaking over 30 years worth of the government not funding elective abortion. Healthcare reform, as it stands, is a radical departure from the status quo.

AUL also released a fantastic short video calling out elected officials, including President Obama, for deceiving Americans on whether or not abortion is included in healthcare.

And Freedom2Care, the coalition of groups that want conscience protections for doctors who decline to perform or refer for abortions, are focusing on the point of view of healthcare professionals. Results from an online survey reveal startling news: 95% of faith-based physicians agreed, “I would rather stop practicing medicine altogether than be Dr. Sandy Christiansen forced to violate my conscience.”

While current healthcare proposals would flood the already overloaded healthcare system in America with millions more patients, all the while forcing doctors to choose between their morals or their profession, how can President Obama possibly expect Americans to receive quality and timely care if his policies will force many doctors to quit?

Several pro-life leaders all got on their webcams recently to show a united front against abortion coverage in healthcare reform. At such a crucial time in the history of our nation and in the fight to protect the unborn, these leaders are showing that we all must get involved and do it now.

What can you do? Contact your Member of Congress and tell you don’t want government dollars paying for abortions. Tell them abortion is not healthcare. And tell them you don’t want your doctor forced out of the practice of medicine.

Sisters of Life Speaking Out on Healthcare Reform

Posted on October 13, 2009 by Guest

Mother Anges Mary, SV with the Sisters of Life talks with www.StMichaelSociety.com concerning health care. Her message:

Abortion is not health care.
We need to pray and act.

We have compiled all the information you need to know here. http://stmichaelsociety.com/?p=457

Action Needed to Stop Abortion Funding in Healthcare

Posted on October 9, 2009 by admin

Doug Johnson from National Right to Life gives an update on the status of healthcare legislation and abortion funding.

Take action now with these handy tools by Stop the Abortion Mandate. ACTION

The polls are on our side. LifeNews reports.

AP Reports: Health care issues: Paying for abortions

Congressman Stupak – A Thorn in Pelosi’s Side

Posted on October 6, 2009 by KHernandez

Congressman Bart Stupak, a Catholic Democrat from Michigan, deserves accolades for holding his ground on an issue that the majority of Americans oppose: having the government pay for abortions through healthcare reform.

Congressman Bart Stupak

William McGurn nails it in his column today, suggesting that Stupak is the new Bob Casey problem for the Democratic party. Bob Casey, the late pro-life governor of Pennsylvania, was famously denied a speaking slot at the 1992 Democratic convention, while the party easily found slots for pro-choice Republicans. McGurn notes that the “moment helped tar the Democrats as a party of abortion intolerance—a problem the party thought it put behind it in 2006 when the governor’s son, Democrat Robert Casey Jr., was elected senator as a pro-life Democrat.”

But party leaders are making the mistake all over again and now, “Just like Gov. Casey before him, Mr. Stupak’s stand for life—in this case, his fight against tax dollars for abortion—is making him a thorn in the side of a Democratic president.”

Here’s the kicker – remember President Obama’s speech at Notre Dame earlier this year (yes, I’d rather forget it happened as well)? The President almost convincingly urged everyone to find “common ground” to “reduce the number of women seeking abortions.”

Mr. President, where’s the ‘common ground’ when your party and its leaders are about to force Americans to pay for abortions through massive healthcare reform?

Rep. Stupak is fighting to get an explicit exclusion of abortion written into healthcare legislation but his party won’t even let him bring his amendment to the floor for a vote, which stands in stark contrast to Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s own words that “no Member of Congress should be silenced on the floor.”

Now Stupak is making sure that Speaker Pelosi and President Obama know he’s serious:

Last week Mr. Stupak, 24 other Democrats and 158 Republicans sent the speaker a letter asking her to make good on that pledge. Members of the House, they said, should have the “right to vote their conscience on an amendment offered by Congressmen Stupak and [Joe] Pitts [R., Pa.] regarding government funding for abortion.”

Does he have enough votes to get the exclusion written into the bill? McGurn says that no ones knows yet if he’s got the votes to block the healthcare bill if he’s not allowed to offer his amendment but you have to believe he’s close – both Speaker Pelosi and President Obama have personally reached out to him.

Bart Stupak is truly a hero – standing up against his own party and fighting for those who have no voice. He wants healthcare reform to pass, just not at the expense of the government paying for abortions.

Go here to send a message of encouragement to Rep. Stupak.

Abortion a Stumbling Block for Healthcare Reform?

Posted on October 2, 2009 by admin

No one fooled by Capps Amendment…Rep. Bart Stupak holding his ground…Dems working on 2^nd phony amendment…

Whenever the liberal Dems are pressed on whether or not abortion is funded by government dollars through healthcare, they often point back to the Capps Amendment in the House bill, which they say makes sure gov dollars aren’t spent on elective abortions. Of course, unless they are Nancy Pelosi, who doublespeaks when asked about it this summer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOMDyvVJad0.

Fortunately for the majority of Americans who don’t want the government to fund abortions through healthcare, Congressman Bart Stupak, a Democrat from Michigan, is holding his ground against President Obama and Nancy Pelosi. Stupak is pushing for an explicit exclusion of abortion to be written into healthcare legislation – and if he doesn’t get it, he says he’s got 40 votes against healthcare reform, something that Pelosi just can’t afford.

US News & World Report has a great Q&A with Stupak on his recent phone call with President Obama on abortion funding in healthcare. The gist is that Stupak is holding his ground and refuses to concede that the Capps Amendment prohibits gov money from paying for abortion.

So what to do now?

Well, Rep. Henry Waxman, the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and who has a pro-choice voting record even Nancy Pelosi would be envious of, wants to come up with a “compromise” with some of the more moderate members of Stupak’s coalition (read: former-pro-lifer-but-still-portrayed-as-pro-lifer Rep. Tim Ryan). He wants to strip away Stupak’s support bit by bit till he has the votes needed to pass a phony compromise, claim victory and hand the bill over to Pelosi. Rep. Diana DeGette, a Colorado Democrat, admitted as much.

Doug Johnson, the legislative director at National Right to Life, blows up the rhetoric once again:

”Pelosi and Waxman are working on cosmetic changes to the Capps Amendment, which they will then try to peddle as an even-more-generous ‘compromise’ by the pro-abortion side (but which in reality will put the federal government into the elective abortion business in both the public plan and the premium subsidy program).”

Johnson also says that even if the House members adopt the new Waxman language, it doesn’t alleviate the concern of abortion funding found in the public option. In fact, the government option “problem is very important and separate and distinct from the premium-subsidy problem.”

TIME Magazine, the independent FactCheck.org and the Associated Press, among others, have all confirmed that abortion will be paid for using government dollars with the current healthcare plan.

For more info on the Capps Amendment and other talking points, see www.StopTheAbortionMandate.com.

Setback Today but the Fight is Not Over

Posted on September 30, 2009 by admin

It’s important to remember that this fight is not over but sadly as expected the amendments to restrict public funding of abortion and conscience protection failed today in the Senate Finance Committee. There are more options in the Senate and pro lifers there plan to keep up this fight. On the House side, earlier this week 183 Members of Congress sent a bipartisan letter to Speaker Pelosi asking for a vote the Stupak-Pitts amendments.

Great coverage here by Steven Ertelt at LifeNews. http://www.lifenews.com/nat5521.html

“The Hatch nondiscrimination amendment failed by a vote of 13-10 with pro-abortion Sen. Olympia Snow, a Maine Republican, siding with Democrats on the panel to oppose the measure.

Sen. Kent Conrad, a North Dakota Democrat, joined Republicans in supporting the amendment.”

183 Members of Congress Sign Letter to Speaker Pelosi Urging Abortion Vote

Posted on September 30, 2009 by admin

183 Democrat and Republican Members of Congress signed a letter urging Speaker Pelosi to allow a vote on the pro-life amendment to be offered by Reps. Stupak and Pitts. The New York Times ran a story outlining the importance of the abortion issue in House consideration of health care reform. We thought you might be interested in the letter found here.

“Proposed healthcare reform legislation, H.R. 3200, America’s Affordable Health Choices Act, radically departs from the current federal government policy of not paying for elective abortion or subsidizing plans that cover abortion. None of the bill reported out of the three committees of jurisdiction have addressed our serious concerns about public funding of abortion.”

BEYOND ABORTION: Another Reason for Catholics to Oppose Government-Run Health Care

Posted on September 29, 2009 by admin

For good reason, most of the concern about the health care proposals coming out of congress is directed toward the attempts to hide provisions for taxpayer funded abortions in the language of the bill. This, and also the fear of assisted suicide provisions and the alleged possibility of “death panels,” certainly needs to receive the most attention right now.

However, Catholics must not be lulled into thinking that these are the only reasons to oppose a government-run plan. Even if by some miracle the Senate Finance Committee adopts all of the amendments to fix language that leaves the possibility of publically funded abortion, there is still the issue of subsidiarity, and how a forced government option can, in principle, still run contrary to Church teaching. Unfortunately, many Catholics have no idea what subsidiarity is, and why it needs to be at the forefront of the current health care debate.

It is a fundamental principle of social philosophy, fixed and unchangeable, that one should not withdraw from individuals and commit to the community what they [individuals] can accomplish by their own enterprise and industry.” – Pope Pius XI, Quadragesimo Anno

Though the term is probably foreign to most, the concept is common sense. In basic terms, subsidiarity holds that even though it may sometimes be necessary for higher levels of government to assume responsibilities previously held by lower levels, this comes with great risk to individual freedom and dignity, and can expose a society to greater corruption and tyranny. Therefore, a government-run “anything” should only be considered as an absolute last resort.

For an excellent primer on the concept of subsidiarity and how a Catholic should respond to the current health care debate, I highly recommend reading the joint letter composed by Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann and Bishop Robert W. Finn (found here). After you read it, email it to your senator. Tell them that you expect that any health care bill be formed using sound moral reasoning and based on the principles of subsidiarity.

Several other bishops and Catholic organizations have produced similar statements to help educate Catholics on these issues. Please check back often as we will try to highlight several of these as the debate continues in congress.

Patrick Looby, Fredericksburg, VA

Join Us in a Day of Prayer to Keep Abortion out of the Healthcare Bill

Posted on September 28, 2009 by admin

Prayer Alert – This week there is a very important vote in the U.S. Senate Finance Committee. They will be voting on amendments to keep abortion coverage out of Sen. Max Baucus’s (D-Mont.) health care bill. Tomorrow also happens to be the feast day of St. Michael the Archangel our society’s patron.

Please join us tomorrow in prayer to St. Michael asking him to intercede on behalf of the unborn to keep government funding of abortion out of any healthcare legislation. Please pass this prayer request on so we can create a prayer chain calling on St. Michael to help us defend life in the Senate Finance Committee. Thank you and God Bless You!

PRAYER TO SAINT MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL

St. Michael the Archangel,
defend us in battle.
Be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the Devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray,
and do thou,
O Prince of the heavenly hosts,
by the power of God,
thrust into hell Satan,
and all the evil spirits,
who prowl about the world
seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

A reminder that you can call your Senator via the US Capitol switchboard number; 202-224-3121. They will connect you to your Senator’s office. Tell your Senator; No government funding of abortion in any healthcare bill.

Ad Exposes Planned Parenthood Abortion Funding