Thursday, July 16, 2009

If President Obama is honest with himself, he must admit to misleading Benedict at their meeting.


Did President Obama Mislead
the Holy Father?
by Deal W. Hudson
7/16/09

Did President Obama Mislead
the Holy Father?by Deal W. Hudson 7/16/09
In the late afternoon of July 1o, President Obama met privately with Pope Benedict XVI for just over 30 minutes. According to official Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi, S.J., "The president explicitly expressed his commitment to reducing the numbers of abortions and to listen to the church's concern on moral issues." On July 13 in a Senate committee hearing, Sen. Barbara Mikulski was forced to admit under persistent questioning by Sen. Orrin Hatch that the new health-care bill includes abortion coverage. Planned Parenthood's Guttmacher Institute estimates government funding of abortion increases abortion by 20 to 35 percent. There were 1,206,200 abortions in 2006, according to National Right Life (the last annual results available). The math is easy: If the heath-care package currently being pushed by Obama is passed, the result will be 240,000 to 420,000 more abortions in the first year alone. Did President Obama know these abortion provisions were in the Senate health-care bill when he met with the Holy Father? There is no reason to think he didn't. He certainly knew he had gone on the record supportingfederal funding for abortion in the District of Columbia. If President Obama is honest with himself, he must admit to misleading Benedict at their meeting.
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