Obama: 'No taxpayer-funded abortions in health bill'

Obama: 'No taxpayer-funded abortions in health bill' Pro-life group calls president dishonest on coverage of procedure In a conference call with his supporters Wednesday evening, President Obama accused critics of his health care "reform" of spreading falsehoods when they claim the plan would result in "government funding of abortions." "You've heard that this is all going to mean government funding of abortion. Not true," he told at least 140,000 people. "These are all fabrications that have been put out there in order to discourage people from meeting what I consider to be a core ethical and moral obligation – and that is that we look out for one another, that I am my brother's keeper and I am my sister's keeper. And on the wealthiest nation on earth right now, we are neglecting to live up to that call." Douglas Johnson, legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee, or NRLC, said Obama brazenly misrepresented the abortion-related component of the health care legislation. Abortionists admit killing babies, call it 'absolute evil.' Get the culture-war classic 'The Marketing of Evil' – autographed at WND! Johnson noted that according to the Capps-Waxman amendment passed by the House Energy and Commerce Committee on July 30, H.R. 3200 explicitly authorizes the government plan to cover all elective abortions. "Obama apparently seeks to hide behind a technical distinction between tax funds and government-collected premiums," Johnson said in a statement. "But these are merely two types of public funds, collected and spent by government agencies. The Obama-backed legislation makes it explicitly clear that no citizen would be allowed to enroll in the government plan unless he or she is willing to give the federal agency an extra amount calculated to cover the cost of all elective abortions – this would not be optional. The abortionists would bill the federal government and would be paid by the federal government. These are public funds, and this is government funding of abortion." Johnson noted that when Obama was a presidential candidate, he specifically pledged to Planned Parenthood that his plan would cover abortions in 2007. An NRLC video of that promise follows: (click here) While some news outlets claim Obama has "backed off" his pledge in a July 21 interview with Katie Couric, Johnson said, the president simply avoided directly addressing his goal and stated, "we also have a tradition of, in this town, historically, of not financing abortions as part of government funded health care." "It is true that there is such a tradition – which Obama has always opposed, and which the Obama-backed bill would shatter," Johnson said. The White House "reality check" website has not addressed the issue of abortion coverage in Obama's health plan. Obama's Organizing for America website quotes a false factcheck.org statement that "In fact, none of the health care overhaul measures that have made it through the committee level in Congress say that abortion will be covered." NRLC has released an 11-page detailed explanation of provisions in pending health bills that would impact abortion policy. As WND reported, Mathew Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel, has had his organization analyze the plan. He confirmed it contains health care rationing, a national health ID card complete with government access to personal bank accounts, government decisions on what health care benefits are available and mandatory taxpayer support for abortion. The Liberty Counsel analysis said under Section 1308, the government will dictate marriage and family therapy as well as mental health services, including the definitions of those treatments. Under Section 1401, a Center for Comparative Effectiveness Research would be set up, creating a bureaucracy through which federal employees could determine whether any treatment is "comparatively effective" for any individual based on the cost, likely success and probably the years left in life. It also, according to Staver, "covers abortions, transsexual surgeries, encourages counseling as to how many children you should have, whether you should increase the interval between children." Contact: Chelsea Schilling Source: WorldNetDaily Publish Date: August 20, 2009 Link to this article.   Send this article to a friend.