Senate Leader Postpones Vote on Pro-Abortion Health Care Bill Until September
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- In a move that gives pro-life advocates more time to organize, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday that the Senate will not vote on a health care restructuring bill until September. The pro-life community is concerned the bill could lead to massive taxpayer funding of abortion and coverage mandates. Despite a nationally televised press conference featuring pro-abortion President Barack Obama pleading for a vote before the August recess, Reid says the Senate will wait. “It’s a complex, difficult issue,” Reid said. “I think it’s better to have a product that is one based on quality and thoughtfulness rather than pushing something through.” He said members of the Senate Finance Committee would approve the bill, that will be combined with one the Senate HELP Committee already approved, without pro-life amendments to limit abortion funding and coverage. However, the debate has been so contentious that the panel may not approve the bill in time. Reid appeared to admit that growing opposition to the government-run health care plan and its abortion component is hampering his effort to find votes. His move will put pressure on pro-abortion House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to back down from her insistent pledge to move a health care bill before the traditional August recess. Full story at LifeNews.comACTION: Contact members of the House and Senate and urge strong support for any amendment to exclude abortion from their health care bills. Call 202-224-3121 or go tohttp://www.House.gov and http://www.Senate.gov for specific contact information.
Obama Staffer Speaks at Planned Parenthood Event, Urges Pro-Abortion Lobbying
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A top official with the administration of pro-abortion President Barack Obama spoke to gathering of Planned Parenthood activists last week. There, she promised leaders of the abortion business that Obama is a pro-abortion president and urged them to continue their pro-abortion lobbying efforts.Tina Tchen, director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, spoke to more than 400 pro-abortion activists at the 2009 Planned Parenthood Organizing and Policy Summit last week. Tchen is the former vice president of the National Organization for Women, a prominent pro-abortion organization, whom Obama selected as executive director of the White House Council on Women and Girls. During the event, Tchen told the Planned Parenthood activists that if they want abortion as a part of the health care restructuring plan Congress is considering, they need to "bring it" -- and up their lobbying efforts. Tchen, who shared a panel with Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards, told activists that Obama is committed to abortion and health care. "I can say this directly from the White House, the President reiterated to all of us in the senior staff that health care is the most important issue," she said, according to a post on a pro-abortion blog site. "It is the signature issue that he ran on, it is what he believes is one of the singularly most important reforms that need to be made that affects America, that affects our economy." Full story at LifeNews.com
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A top official with the administration of pro-abortion President Barack Obama spoke to gathering of Planned Parenthood activists last week. There, she promised leaders of the abortion business that Obama is a pro-abortion president and urged them to continue their pro-abortion lobbying efforts.Tina Tchen, director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, spoke to more than 400 pro-abortion activists at the 2009 Planned Parenthood Organizing and Policy Summit last week. Tchen is the former vice president of the National Organization for Women, a prominent pro-abortion organization, whom Obama selected as executive director of the White House Council on Women and Girls. During the event, Tchen told the Planned Parenthood activists that if they want abortion as a part of the health care restructuring plan Congress is considering, they need to "bring it" -- and up their lobbying efforts. Tchen, who shared a panel with Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards, told activists that Obama is committed to abortion and health care. "I can say this directly from the White House, the President reiterated to all of us in the senior staff that health care is the most important issue," she said, according to a post on a pro-abortion blog site. "It is the signature issue that he ran on, it is what he believes is one of the singularly most important reforms that need to be made that affects America, that affects our economy." Full story at LifeNews.com Medical professionals are on the frontlines of the battle on life issues. From abortion to assisted suicide, we are challenged in the workplace to defend our beliefs and risk our employment. The National Association of Pro-life Nurses has been here for nurses since the beginning. Join with us to protect those voices. |
Pro-Life Advocates Don't Trust Obama Saying He Wants No Abortion in Health Care
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- In a recent interview, President Barack Obama said he does not want abortion funding in the final health care bill Congress may send him. But two pro-life advocates say they don't trust Obama, and point out that his record is consistently pro-abortion. Obama toldCBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric that he would "rather not wade into" the issue of abortion funding in health care "at this point" and that he is "not trying to micro-manage what benefits are covered." "I'm pro-choice, but I think we also have the tradition in this town, historically, of not financing abortions as part of government-funded health care," he said. "My main focus is making sure that people have options of high quality care at the lowest possible price." Douglas Johnson, the legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee, called Obama's comments a "deception." He told LifeNews.com today that Obama "failed to mention that he has always opposed this 'tradition' and that the health-care bills he is pushing would obliterate it." Johnson said Obama's qualification of "at this point" shows he may favor funding and coverage of abortion at some other time -- i.e. after Congress approves and he signs a bill giving his administration authority to include it. "I guess he thinks a better time would be after the bill is enacted, when the pro-abortion mandates start going out from the Department of Health and Human Services, and when he blocks renewal of the Hyde Amendment," Johnson said. Full story at LifeNews.comTens of Thousands of Pro-Life Advocates to Join Webcast on Abortion, Health Care
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- More than 25,000 pro-life advocates have registered to participate in an unprecedented webcast featuring pro-life leaders from prominent pro-life organizations. The advocates will have a unified message that abortion should not be included in the government-run health care plan Congress is considering. The Thursday night webcast features a who's who of the national pro-life movement with representatives of groups like National Right to Life, Family Research Council, Focus on the Family, Concerned Women for America, and Priests for Life. Congressmen Chris Smith and Joe Pitts will speak as well as former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of the Susan B. Anthony List, a pro-life women's group, will be there and she told LifeNews.com the abortion-health care battle is the biggest since the presidential election for the pro-life community. “This week President Obama acknowledged the longstanding tradition of excluding abortion coverage from government-funded health care programs," she said. "When we find longstanding policies like limiting taxpayer funds for abortion, we know political common ground has been achieved." Full story at LifeNews.comTo Participate: http://www.
by Rep. Mike Pence
Budgets are moral documents. Federal funding should reflect the priorities and the values of the majority of the American people. This is the Constitutional duty of each Member of Congress, and a responsibility not to be taken lightly, especially in difficult economic times. This week, the House of Representatives will consider the Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2010, the bill that provides funding for the budgets of the Department of Labor and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Title X of the HHS budget is the Family Planning program. And while there are undeniably positive things happening at federally funded clinics nationwide as a result of this money, there is a disturbing loophole contained within this funding program. The largest abortion provider in America should not be the largest recipient of federal funds under Title X. Yet this is precisely what is happening. Last year alone, according to Planned Parenthood’s own annual report, it received 34% of its $1.04 billion in revenue from government grants and contracts, and performed more than 305,000 abortions. Full story at LifeNews.comObama Vatican Ambassador, Catholic Who Backs Pro-Abortion Pols, Gets Hearing
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Miguel Diaz, the college professor whom has backed pro-abortion politicians and whom President Barack Obama picked to become ambassador to the Vatican, has been unusually quiet since his nomination. Diaz has not done any interviews with either Catholic or secular press since Obama tapped him. Diaz received criticism from pro-life advocates for backing Obama's presidential bid, his pro-abortion health secretary nominee and for working with a group that covered up Obama's pro-abortion record during the presidential election. Yesterday, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing on Diaz's nomination and he received little in the way of questions. Fellow Catholic Sen. Bob Casey asked about Obama's recent meeting with Pope Benedict XVI and Diaz mentioned a few topics and added that the two spoke on the pope's encyclicals on "bioethics and abortion." Julia Duin of the Washington Times reports that Diaz's answer was interesting in that "his recitation differs somewhat from the official Vatican press release so it's possible Mr. Diaz got some information from the White House." But what struck Duin more was Diaz's lackluster responses to the committee and unwillingness to talk to the press. Full story at LifeNews.com
Pro-Abortion Science Czar John Holdren May Forecast Future of "ObamaCare"
by Matt Barber
As the debate over President Obama's socialized healthcare plan heats up, the depth of his radicalism is becoming more evident. John Holdren, Obama’s recent choice for “Science Czar,” provides the latest and perhaps most troubling example of extremism. In the name of population control, Holdren has advocated both forced abortion and compulsory sterilization through government-administered tainting of the water supply. In a 1977 book he co-authored, called “Ecoscience: Population, Resources, Environment,” Holdren called for a “Planetary Regime” to enforce mandatory abortions for population control and limit the use of natural resources. John Holdren is like a bad character from a George Orwell novel. The fact that Obama would unilaterally appoint him to a position of such power and influence says more about our President than it does his ‘Science Czar.’ Birds of a feather flock together.Full story at LifeNews.com
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The pro-life community is focused on the pro-abortion problems with the health care restructuring bills Congress is considering, but there appears to be another threat. One patients' advocate who is the former New York lieutenant governor, says the bill also promotes elderly euthanasia. The government-run health care plan the House is considering would require "end of life" counseling for seniors. In section 1233 of the tri-committee health care bill, a government-run "Advance Care Planning Consultation" is created. Betsy McCaughey, in an interview with former presidential candidate Fred Thompson on his radio show warned people to "protect their parents" from the measure and said the consultation is essentially an attempt to kill off elderly Americans. She says the bill would require that anyone on Social Security undergo a mandatory counseling session every five years. "One of the most shocking things is page 425, where the Congress would make it mandatory absolutely that every five years people in Medicare have a required counseling session," she said. "They will tell [them] how to end their life sooner. Full story at LifeNews.com"Common Ground" Bill Gets Backing of Abortion Advocates, No Pro-Life Groups
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- When is common ground on the divisive abortion issue not really common ground? When members of Congress float a bill that is essentially a bailout for Planned Parenthood and it gains the backing of pro-abortion groups and leaders and not one pro-life organization climbs aboard. As LifeNews.com previously reportedDemocratic Reps. Tim Ryan, of Ohio, and Rosa DeLauro, of Connecticut are behind the bill, which does little more than provide additional taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood and efforts to promote birth control and sexual education. The measure contains no laws limiting abortion and no direct help for pregnancy centers that provide women with abortion alternatives -- both of which have been proven to reduce abortions. Thus, it is no surprise that Planned Parenthood supports the bill as does DeLauro's former employer, the abortion advocacy group NARAL. LifeNews.com repeatedly emailed Ryan's press secretary, Brad Bauman, to obtain a list of the pro-life groups and individuals who supposedly endorsed the bill. We've yet to receive such a list, and the preliminary list Bauman sent includes no pro-life groups or leaders who back the bill. Full story at LifeNews.comAbortion Advocates Plan Commemorative "Beijing +15" Reproductive Rights Push
New York, NY (LifeNews.com/CFAM) -- The "NGO Committee on Women" met last week at United Nations headquarters in New York to plan commemorations marking the 15th anniversary of the Beijing Conference on Women (Beijing +15) next March. While planning committee organizers billed the anniversary as a cause for celebration, many meeting participants voiced dismay at what they see as a lack of women's progress since 1995 and called on their colleagues to use the anniversary to demand more from governments, particularly in the area of "sexual and reproductive health and rights." Representatives of various feminist non-governmental organizations (NGOs) pointed out that the Beijing Conference has no legal status and that it was therefore not important to reaffirm the Beijing Conference as written. Instead, they pushed for a more "forward-thinking agenda" at the 2010 NGO Global Forum to advance women's rights. Full story at LifeNews.comItaly Government Approves Telling United Nations No Abortion for Population Control
Rome, Italy (LifeNews.com/CFAM) -- Italy's Parliament passed an emphatic measure last week directing the Italian government to push for a United Nations (UN) General Assembly resolution that "condemns the use of abortion as an instrument of demographic control and affirms the right of each woman not to be forced to undergo abortion." The move has surprised pro-life observers at the UN, where Italy almost invariably supports the European Union (EU) majority in measures hostile to the rights of the unborn. The parliamentary effort was led by Rocco Buttiglione, head of the Union of Christian Democrats, with the support of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's governing People of Freedom Party and the Center Democrats. Leftist parliamentarians sought to dilute the proposal by tacking on a rider promoting contraceptives, but this was voted down. A number of left-wing politicians nevertheless voted in favor of the motion, which is structured principally as a common-ground initiative emphasizing the right of women to be free from coerced abortion. Full story at LifeNews.com
Rome, Italy (LifeNews.com/CFAM) -- Italy's Parliament passed an emphatic measure last week directing the Italian government to push for a United Nations (UN) General Assembly resolution that "condemns the use of abortion as an instrument of demographic control and affirms the right of each woman not to be forced to undergo abortion." The move has surprised pro-life observers at the UN, where Italy almost invariably supports the European Union (EU) majority in measures hostile to the rights of the unborn. The parliamentary effort was led by Rocco Buttiglione, head of the Union of Christian Democrats, with the support of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's governing People of Freedom Party and the Center Democrats. Leftist parliamentarians sought to dilute the proposal by tacking on a rider promoting contraceptives, but this was voted down. A number of left-wing politicians nevertheless voted in favor of the motion, which is structured principally as a common-ground initiative emphasizing the right of women to be free from coerced abortion. Full story at LifeNews.comEncourage Friends to Sign Up for Free Pro-Life News From LifeNews.com
