Three Questions from Nat. Right to Life

Three Questions from Nat. Right to Life
In pursuit of the truth – www.cinopsbegone.com – Friday, September 18, 2009

NEWS MEDIA BEING DUPED BY OBAMA ON ABORTION:

(1) Mr. President: During your campaign for President, you promised the Planned Parenthood Action Fund that funding for “reproductive care,” including abortion, would be at the heart of your health-care plan, and that the “public plan” would cover such services. The pending House bill, with the Capps-Waxman Amendment would explicitly authorize your Secretary of Health and Human Resources to cover all abortions in the government insurance plan, the public option.
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If Congress enacts that that language, would your Secretary fulfill your promise to Planned Parenthood by covering abortions in the public plan, OR would you order her NOT to cover elective abortions under the government plan?

(2) Mr. President: Speaker Pelosi, among others, has insisted that if the public option does pay for abortions, the abortions will be paid for with “private funds.” National Right to Life says that this is misleading and absurd – that as a matter of law, the funds that would be spent by DHHS under the public option would be federal agency, writing checks drawn on a federal Treasury account, would be expending “private funds,” and if so, is that a concept that you think could be applied to other federal agencies – for example, the CIA, the Pentagon, or the Department of the interior?

(3) Mr. President, in recent weeks, you and your staff have made several references to the Hyde Amendment, a provisions of the annual appropriations bill that funds the Department of Health and Human Services.

For example, you said that the pending healthcare bill would not “revoke” the Hyde Amendment. NATIONAL RIGHT TO LIFE SAYS THIS IS A “HEAD FAKE” – THAT IS, IRRELEVANT WITH RESPECT TO THE PENDING HEALTHCARE BILL, BECAUSE NONE OF THE MONEY EXPENDED BY THE PENDING OPTION OR BY THE PREMUM-SUBSIDY PROGRAM WOULD BE COVERED BY THE HYDE AMENDMENT.

However, the Hyde Amendment does cover the federal Medicaid program, and the Hyde Amendment expires every September 30. National Right to Life points out that you have always opposed the Hyde Amendment. Are you willing to change that position now, and to pledge now you will actively support renewal of the Hyde Amendment next year, and each year for the remainder of your term, so that federal Medicaid funds would not be used to fund elective abortions?

And if you are not willing to make that promise, are you willing to at least promise that you will not, next year or in any subsequent year, issue a veto threat on an HHS appropriations bill because the bill would renew the Hyde Amendment? And if you are not willing to make either of those promises, why should anyone believe that the Medicaid program will not be paying for elective abortions by the end of your term (in addition to the abortions that would be paid for under the new programs that would be created by H.R. 3200)?

To contact us by mail: National Right to Life, Inc. 512 10th St. NW Washington, DC 20004-1401. To contact or donate by phone: (202) 626-8800. legfederal@ao.com
George H. Kubeck