Posted on 06/30/2009 10:02:43 AM PDT by presidio9
Nineteen pro-life House Democrats signed a letter last week to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) expressing their opposition to any health care reform that includes abortion funding.
“We cannot support any health-care reform proposal unless it explicitly excludes abortion from the scope of any government-defined or subsidized health insurance plan,” the letter read.
The congressmen did not take a position for or against the so-called “public option” feature of the health care reform bill, which involves the creation of a government-sponsored health insurance poll, but the congressmen were blunt about what they do not want.
“Plans to mandate coverage for abortions, either directly or indirectly (are) unacceptable,” they wrote.
“We want to ensure that the Health Benefits Advisory Committee cannot recommend abortion services be included under covered benefits or as part of benefits package,” the letter further stipulated. “Without an explicit exclusion, abortion could be included in a government subsidized health care plan under general health care.”
“Nineteen Democrats breaking the fold is a sign that not everybody within the Democratic Party is completely sold out to the abortion lobby,” Shaun Kenney, executive director of the American Life League, the largest grassroots Catholic pro-life education organization in the United States, told CNSNews.com.
The fact is, taxpayer dollars are already going towards programs that fund abortion, Kenney said.
“Planned Parenthood alone consumes about $349 million a year in federal and state tax subsidies,” he added.
According to a report from the Alan Guttmacher Institute, research arm of Planned Parenthood, state policies restrict insurance coverage of abortion in only a few states.
“A handful of states prohibit private insurers from covering abortion services, except in cases of life endangerment; more extensive coverage may be purchased at an additional charge,” the report said.
Kenney told CNSNews.com that an amendment to prevent any and all taxpayer money going towards abortion and abortion-related programs would be a “rational next step” and “entirely consistent with the sentiments expressed in the letter.”
Either way, Kenney expressed optimism no matter the speaker’s reaction to the letter.
“What this ultimately is, is the spark, and whether or not Speaker Pelosi listens to them, it certainly is going to encourage the conversation as to whether or not the principles of social justice ultimately coincide with the principles of the abortion lobby,” he added.
The letter was signed by Reps. Dan Boran (D-Okla.), Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), Colin Peterson (D-Minn..), Tim Holden (D-Pa.), Travis Childers (D-Miss.), Lincoln Davis (D-Tenn.), Heath Shuler (D-N.C.), Solomon Ortiz (D-TX), Mike Mclntyre (D-N.C.), Jerry Costello (D-Ill.), Gene Taylor (D-Miss.), James Oberstar (D-Minn.), Bobby Bright (D-Ala.), Steve Driehaus (D-Ohio), Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), Charlie Melancon (D-La.), John Murtha (D-Pa.), Paul Kanjorski (D-Pa.), and Kathleen Dahlkemper (D-Pa.).
Yeah. When hell freezes over.
This is like asking the devil to not be Lucifer.
I thought all the pro-lifers were chased out of the Democratic party around 1973.... do they really still exist?
‘Rotsa ruck.
Nobody gets anywhere by “urging” Pelosi to do anything. She has to be threatened with a promise to follow through on the consequences to get her attention.
Pelosi is as dedicated to fostering abortion as her master in the white house. Both are dedicated to evil. She and her master will be ultimately judged by the highest Authority.
they won’t, and it will create in irreconcilable bottleneck that may sink the plan. (if we have national healthcare with abortion benes, all Catholic health-care providers will shut down, greatly exacerbating the shortages and rationing)
“...Planned Parenthood alone consumes about $349 million a year in federal and state tax subsidies...”
My tax dollars being spent to kill babies. You would think Obamma would want that money spent on more teleprompters, or his fancy new statue at Red Square.
I am heartened to see Bobby Bright on the list. My husband was a law clerk for his wife who was a judge in Alabama. He then went on to work for her sister who was a District Attorney as an assistant d.a. The family was very nice and conservative for the most part. I always wondered why they were still registered as Democrats. Of course state politics and federal politics are a whole different creature for the most part in the south. :)
We will all be paying for the killing and there is absolutely nothing we can do about it. We live in an evil dictatorship where there is absolutely no hope of escaping to freedom.
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