Senate Committee Adopts Health Care Reform Bill That Funds, Promotes Abortion
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A Senate committee today adopted a health care restructuring bill that is everything pro-life advocacy groups fear -- because it will lead to abortion funding and coverage. The Senate HELP Committee, on a partisan 13-10 vote, cleared the health care reform bill for further consideration. The panel's vote to adopt the contentious measure came after all of the committee's Democrats, minus Sen. Bob Casey, defeated four separate amendments to make the bill abortion neutral. Despite his support for the pro-life amendments to stop abortion coverage and to protect the conscience rights of health care workers who don't want to be involved in abortions, Casey voted today for the legislation. Douglas Johnson, the legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee, which has led the fight against Sen. Ted Kennedy's bill, talked with LifeNews.com about the HELP Committee's vote. "Senator Kennedy's bill, which all 13 committee Democrats voted for, would result in the greatest expansion of abortion since Roe v. Wade," he said. "It contains provisions under which virtually every insurance plan would be required to cover elective abortion, every local health network would be required to recruit abortionists, and many state abortion laws could be overridden," Johnson said. "The bill also would result in taxpayer funding of abortion on demand." Full story at LifeNews.comACTION: Please call your members of the House and Senate immediately at 202-224-3121 and urge them to vote against any health care bill that doesn't exclude abortion. You can find specific contact info at http://www.Senate.gov and http://www.House.gov or click here for NRLC's action alert page.
White House: Like Obama, Surgeon General Nominee Regina Benjamin Backs Abortion
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- White House officials have confirmed that President Barack Obama's nominee for Surgeon General may be a Catholic, but agrees with his pro-abortion position. Regina Benjamin is a well-regarded Alabama physician who has been honored by the Catholic Church for helping poor residents of her state. However, as LifeNews.com was the first to report, Benjamin serves on the board of directors of a pro-abortion organization and appeared to support an American Medical Association vote asking colleges to teach more about abortions. Late Tuesday, White House spokesman Reid Cherlin confirmed that Benjamin's position on abortion matches the radical pro-abortion position taken by Obama. Cherlin said Benjamin "supports the president's position on reproductive health issues." "Like him she believes that this is an issue where it is important to try and seek common ground and come together to try and reduce the number of unintended pregnancies. As a physician, she is deeply committed to the philosophy of putting her patients' needs first when it comes to providing care," Cherlin continued. Benjamin runs the Bayou La Batre Rural Health Clinic in southern Alabama and, although the facility does not do abortions, staff at the center would not confirm to McClatchy newspapers whether they refer women for them. Benjamin serves as a member of the board of directors of Physicians for Human Rights, an organization which has spoken out against illegal abortions in many nations across the world. Full story at LifeNews.com
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- White House officials have confirmed that President Barack Obama's nominee for Surgeon General may be a Catholic, but agrees with his pro-abortion position. Regina Benjamin is a well-regarded Alabama physician who has been honored by the Catholic Church for helping poor residents of her state. However, as LifeNews.com was the first to report, Benjamin serves on the board of directors of a pro-abortion organization and appeared to support an American Medical Association vote asking colleges to teach more about abortions. Late Tuesday, White House spokesman Reid Cherlin confirmed that Benjamin's position on abortion matches the radical pro-abortion position taken by Obama. Cherlin said Benjamin "supports the president's position on reproductive health issues." "Like him she believes that this is an issue where it is important to try and seek common ground and come together to try and reduce the number of unintended pregnancies. As a physician, she is deeply committed to the philosophy of putting her patients' needs first when it comes to providing care," Cherlin continued. Benjamin runs the Bayou La Batre Rural Health Clinic in southern Alabama and, although the facility does not do abortions, staff at the center would not confirm to McClatchy newspapers whether they refer women for them. Benjamin serves as a member of the board of directors of Physicians for Human Rights, an organization which has spoken out against illegal abortions in many nations across the world. Full story at LifeNews.comHouse Democrats Prohibit Vote to Stop Obama's Tax-Funded Abortions in DC
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- House Democrats have once again prevented pro-life lawmakers from obtaining a vote on an amendment that would limit taxpayer funding of abortions. As it did on the Mexico City Policy, Democratic leaders are preventing a vote on an amendment that would stop tax-funding of abortions in the nation's capital. Last week, pro-life Reps. Tod Tiahrt, a Republican, and Lincoln Davis, a Democrat, floated an amendment to the Financial Services Appropriations bill, H.R. 3170. Their goal was to stop President Barack Obama's request that the longstanding ban on publicly-funded abortions in the District of Columbia be overturned. The House Appropriations Committee rejected the amendment on a 33-28 vote. Tiahrt and Davis were joined by eight other congressmen from both parties who wanted to have a chance to vote on the amendment on Thursday on the House floor when the full House considers the legislation. However, on Wednesday night, the Democratic-controlled House Rules Committee voted against allowing consideration of the Tiahrt/Davis amendment to restore the District of Columbia abortion funding ban. "Instead of allowing a full and open debate in the House of Representatives, Democrats rejected our amendment to prevent taxpayer dollars from being used to fund abortions in our nation’s capital," Tiahrt told LifeNews.com. Full story at LifeNews.comSonia Sotomayor Continues Ducking Abortion Questions in Wednesday Hearing
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Sonia Sotomayor continued ducking abortion questions during questioning on Wednesday from members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. She also told one member that President Barack Obama never asked her about abortion and another member that states should have input on abortion. During the questioning, pro-life Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, asked Sotomayor whether Obama asked her about abortion during their private meetings prior to his nominating her for the Supreme Court. "I was asked no question by anyone including the president about my views on any specific legal issue," she said. Cornyn asked her how her former associate George Pavia, the head partner of the law firm where she worked before she was a judge, could "guarantee" she would, like Justice David Souter, the pro-abortion judge she would replace, uphold decisions allowing virtually unlimited abortions. "I have no idea," Sotomayor responds adding that she never had a discussion with Pavia about abortion. Full story at LifeNews.com
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- In what appears to be a replay of the debate concerning Sonia Sotomayor, groups on both sides of the abortion debate are asking where Regina Benjamin, Obama's pick for Surgeon General, stands on abortion. They're coming away with more questions than answers. On Monday, LifeNews.com broke the news that Benjamin had supported an American Medical Association policy in December 1996 that called for more abortion education. The article also highlighted her involvement with a pro-abortion doctors group. Today, the White House confirmed thatBenjamin shares the views of pro-abortion President Barack Obama on "reproductive health issues," which presumably includes abortion. Leading pro-life and pro-abortion groups have been silent, so far, on Benjamin.The officials from top pro-life organizations that LifeNews.com has spoken to like Benjamin's Catholic background and her service to her community but they question where she stands on abortion and abortion training. Reports today indicate that Benjamin dispenses birth control at her Alabama clinic and officials there told the McClatchy news service that abortions are not done but would not comment on whether Benjamin's center makes abortion referrals. The focus is also turning to the statement the AMA adopted at a December 1996 conference urging more abortion education. The AMA called on medical schools to "encourage education on termination of pregnancy issues so that medical students receive a satisfactory knowledge of the medical, ethical, legal, and psychological principles associated with termination of pregnancy." Full story at LifeNews.com
Sonia Sotomayor May Oppose Supreme Court OKing Partial-Birth Abortion Ban
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Sonia Sotomayor may have inadvertently tipped off political observers on abortion during hearings in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. Sotomayor appeared to indicate she disagrees with a recent Supreme Court ruling upholding the federal ban on partial-birth abortions. Sotomayor made the slip during a question and answer period with pro-abortion Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat who is a member of the panel. Feinstein asked Sotomayor about instances where there are “multiple precedents” in case law and whether it is settled law that any legislative limits on abortion contain a health exception. Feinstein inquired, "So you believe that the health of the woman [exception] still exists?" "It has been a part of the court's jurisprudence and a part of its precedents," Sotomayor said. "Those precedents must be given deference in any situation that arises before the court.""Does a woman have a right to have her health considered?" Feinstein asked in a followup. "Yes," said Sotomayor, "that continues to be the case. Full story at LifeNews.com
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Members of Congress Concerned Obama Health Care Agenda Includes Abortions
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Several members of Congress on Tuesday held a press conference highlighting their concerns that the health care bills that President Barack Obama is pushing through Congress are pro-abortion. They worry the measures will allow taxpayer funding of abortion and abortion mandates for insurance companies. Rep. Chris Smith, the chairman of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus, and several pro-life women and physician members of the House participated in the event. Smith said he is concerned the Obama health care restructuring plan will be the most massive abortion expansion since Roe v. Wade and that every health insurance premium holder and every taxpayer will be forced to pay for every abortion. "Obamacare is the greatest threat ever to the lives and wellness of unborn children and their mothers since Roe v. Wade was rendered in 1973," he said, according to text provided to LifeNews.com. "Despite Mr. Obama’s statement to the Pope last week that he wants to reduce abortion, the ugly truth is that his so-called health care reform bill, if enacted, will lead to millions of additional dead children and wounded mothers," Smith continued. "Unless the legislation explicitly excludes abortion by amendment, abortion will be forced on every health plan in America." Full story at LifeNews.com
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Leading pro-life advocates are concerned about the extended reach the Surgeon General could have on determining whether the health care restructuring bills Congress is considering could force taxpayers to fund abortions or mandate abortion coverage via insurance. Those worries are heightening the concern about President Barack Obama's nomination of Alabama physicianRegina Benjamin as the next Surgeon General. Congress is currently considering a handful of health care reform bills that will eventually be combined into one package that will be sent to Obama for his signature. The bills currently set up the decision-making for inclusion of abortion with the federal government, specifically with the Surgeon General. That worries Bill Donohue, the president of the Catholic League. "Some things are developing very quickly that will test her mettle right away," he said in comments LifeNews.com received. "To begin with, at the same news conference that the president used to announce his choice of Dr. Benjamin, he pushed hard for a new health reform bill. Indeed, he let the Senate Finance Committee know that he wants a bill by week’s end. A central issue is whether abortion services will be mandated as part of the plan," Donohue explained. Full story at LifeNews.com
Democrats for Life Dinner Honors Courageous Pols, Promotes Abortion Reduction
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- President Barack Obama may talk a good game when it comes to advocating the reduction of abortions, but Democrats for Life of America took the occasion of its annual dinner on Tuesday to honor lawmakers who are sticking their necks out in an unfriendly caucus to do something about it. Democrats for Life is a small ,but influential, group that has the unenviable task of promoting the pro-life perspective in a party dominated by fierce pro-abortion proponents like NARAL and Emily's List. So when Pennsylvania Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper won her Congressional primary against abortion advocates, as a proudly pro-life Democratic woman, some political observers thought it was a fluke. During her campaign, admittedly against a pro-life Republican incumbent, Dahlkemper spoke about her experiences as a single mother. Since her election, Dahlkemper has become a key partner of all those or those who defend life in Congress. She joined longtime pro-life leaders in June in an effort to stop President Obama's international abortion agenda. As DLFA tells LifeNews.com about its awards dinner honoree, "Her ability to work constructively with other Congressional colleagues, while coming from a state that is perceived as pro-choice, has already made her a valuable voice for pro-life Democrats and an advocate for the preborn." But DFLA executive director Kristen Day says the dinner and her group's mission is exemplified in the courage Dahlkemper, and others like her, have shown. Full story at LifeNews.comUnborn Children May Already Have Short-Term Memory Formed at 30 Weeks
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Dutch researchers say unborn children may have their short-term memory formed at 30 weeks into the pregnancy. The research provides yet another amazing revelation into the development of unborn children before birth, and another reason to adamantly oppose abortion. Dr. Jan G. Nijhuis, director of the Centre for Genetics, Reproduction and Child Health at Maastricht University Medical Centre in Holland is behind the new research. He and his team published their findings in the July/August issue of Child Development. "This is the next step into a better insight in the development of the fetal central nervous system," he told HealthDailyNews. "We aim to develop an 'intra-uterine neurologic examination,' which could then be used in fetuses at risk." Full story at LifeNews.comPro-Life Democrats Group Cuts Squishy Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan From Board
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- There was once a time with Ohio congressman Tim Ryan was considered a rising star within pro-life circles. A rare pro-life Democrat and from the crucial battleground state of Ohio, Ryan was embraced by Right to Life groups and by Democrats for Life of America. Ryan worked with the national organization for pro-life Democrats and eventually became a national advisory board member and a sponsor of its key legislative component. However, as LifeNews.com has chronicled, Ryan has increasingly backed away from the pro-life position and gone as far as attacking pro-life groups in public. When he took DFLA's legislation, the Pregnant Women Support Act, and compromised it by including taxpayer funding for the nation's largest abortion business, Planned Parenthood, that was the last straw for the organization. “DFLA gave Congressman Ryan ample opportunities to prove he’s committed to protecting life, but he has turned his back on the community at every turn,” Kristen Day, the group's executive director, says. Full story at LifeNews.com
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- There was once a time with Ohio congressman Tim Ryan was considered a rising star within pro-life circles. A rare pro-life Democrat and from the crucial battleground state of Ohio, Ryan was embraced by Right to Life groups and by Democrats for Life of America. Ryan worked with the national organization for pro-life Democrats and eventually became a national advisory board member and a sponsor of its key legislative component. However, as LifeNews.com has chronicled, Ryan has increasingly backed away from the pro-life position and gone as far as attacking pro-life groups in public. When he took DFLA's legislation, the Pregnant Women Support Act, and compromised it by including taxpayer funding for the nation's largest abortion business, Planned Parenthood, that was the last straw for the organization. “DFLA gave Congressman Ryan ample opportunities to prove he’s committed to protecting life, but he has turned his back on the community at every turn,” Kristen Day, the group's executive director, says. Full story at LifeNews.comMissouri Health Department Suggests Cutting Funds for Abortion Alternatives Efforts
Jefferson City, MO (LifeNews.com) -- In response to a request from pro-abortion Gov. Jay Nixon to identify cuts in the state budget given the current fiscal crisis in Missouri, officials with the state health department have proposed slashing the funding under the Alternatives to Abortion program (ATA). Under the current Missouri Department of Health budget proposal, ATA funding for fiscal year 2010 could be cut entirely or reduced severely. ATA provides a wide range of emergency services to women facing crisis pregnancies. The program provides services during pregnancy and for one year after the birth of the child including prenatal care, medical and mental health care, parenting skills, newborn and infant care, education services, housing, clothing, food, supplies related to pregnancy, newborn care and parenting and adoption assistance. Full story at LifeNews.com
Jefferson City, MO (LifeNews.com) -- In response to a request from pro-abortion Gov. Jay Nixon to identify cuts in the state budget given the current fiscal crisis in Missouri, officials with the state health department have proposed slashing the funding under the Alternatives to Abortion program (ATA). Under the current Missouri Department of Health budget proposal, ATA funding for fiscal year 2010 could be cut entirely or reduced severely. ATA provides a wide range of emergency services to women facing crisis pregnancies. The program provides services during pregnancy and for one year after the birth of the child including prenatal care, medical and mental health care, parenting skills, newborn and infant care, education services, housing, clothing, food, supplies related to pregnancy, newborn care and parenting and adoption assistance. Full story at LifeNews.comEncourage Friends to Sign Up for Free Pro-Life News From LifeNews.com
