New Presidential Bioethics Commission

New Presidential Bioethics Commission



The previous President's Council on Bioethics was terminated before its time by President Obama back in June. Its charter was scheduled to expire in September, and there was some thought it was booted early to clear the deck for a new bioethics group aligned with the president. But no new bioethics council was formed to fill the void. Seems likely the old bioethics council was just giving contrary signals to the President (10 of the 18 members criticized the President after his March 9 speech where he opened the possibility of using more human embryos for research, including creating cloned human embryos for experiments.) Given that the NIH was preparing to promulgate new guidelines for using human embryos, including the steps to take for their destruction to allow federal taxpayer funding of their harvested cells, the "President's" bioethics council presented an official unwelcome burr under the saddle.

Finally, well after the old council's term would have expired, we now have the announcement that a new Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues will be established (Executive Order 13521). The announcement actually was made a week ago, on November 24. However, as of this writing the Executive Order still does not appear on the White House website (they must have been in a hurry to get to the state dinner.) However, the Executive Order was finally published in the Federal Register on Monday, November 30. The press release names the chair (Amy Gutmann, President of the University of Pennsylvania) and vice chair (James Wagner, president of Emory University) but does not name the other members of the commission (not more than 13 members total.) An interesting part of the Executive Order states that "at least one and not more than three of whom may be bioethicists or scientists drawn from the executive branch, as designated by the President." So, there is a chance to seed the commission with like-minded folks. Nature notes that the new group is "explicitly charged with recommending legislative and regulatory action and promises to have more influence on policy." The article also quotes George Annas opinion that the previous bioethics council had a "narrow, embryo-centric agenda". Nothing could be further from the truth, as evidenced by the range of topics covered by the previous council, including aging, genetic screening, and determination of death (the council's archived website should soon be available from the National Reference Center for Bioethics Literature).

It will be interesting to see the final composition of this new presidential bioethics group, and whether they can live up to the openness, education of the public, and representation of diverse views seen with the last bioethics council. If not, it will just be a rubber stamp for presidential policies.

Contact: David Prentice
Source: FRCBlog
Publish Date: December 1, 2009
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New York magazine asks, "Just how pro-choice is America?" and answers, "Not so much"

New York magazine asks, "Just how pro-choice is America?" and answers, "Not so much"



I'm surprised NARAL linked to this piece yesterday in New York magazine, calling it a "[t]hought-provoking piece." It's no-spin depressing for the other side, actually. The article is long but a good read. And, with a reminder that this was written by a pro-abort, it makes quite the convincing case for incrementalism. Stay strong, pro-lifers, we're winning. Here are some "choice" excerpts...

Most New Yorkers hadn't heard of Bart Stupak before he attached his devastating anti-abortion amendment to the House's health-care-reform bill 3 weeks ago....

And the results sent chills through the pro-choice world.... But... [w]as Stupak's truly the minority view?

According to a Gallup poll from July, 60% of Americans think abortion should be either illegal or "legal only in a few circumstances."... Just 2 months before the health-care bill's passage in the House, a Rasmussen poll found that 48% of the public didn't want abortion covered in any government-subsidized health plan, while just 13% did....

"Because there's a Democratic majority in Congress and the president is pro-choice," says Nancy Keenan, the current director of NARAL, "it sometimes gets lost how truly numerically challenged we are."...

The idea that a bunch of pro-life rogue wingnuts have hijacked the agenda and thwarted the national will is a convenient, but fanciful, belief. Even with an 81-person margin in the House, and even with a passionately committed female, pro-choice Speaker, it was the Democrats who managed to pass a bill that, arguably, would restrict access to abortion more aggressively than any state measure or legal case since the Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade....

From the moment abortion was legalized nationally in 1973, the American public wasn't especially comfortable with it.... As Jeffrey Rosen, the legal scholar at George Washington University, wrote in The Atlantic 3 years ago, Roe v. Wade was one of the few Supreme Court decisions that was out of step with mainstream public opinion....

If forced to choose, Americans today are far more eager to label themselves "pro-life" than they were a dozen years ago. The youngest generation of voters - those between the ages of 18 and 29, and therefore most likely to need an abortion - is the most pro-life to come along since the generation born during the Great Depression, according to Michael Hais and Morley Winograd, authors of Millennial Makeover, who got granular data on the subject from Pew Research Center.

Crisis Pregnancy Centers... now outnumber the country's abortion providers, who themselves are a rapidly aging group (2/3 are over 50, according to a National Abortion Federation study from 2002). In the wake of the murder of Dr. George Tiller this year, the Senate couldn't even pass a resolution condemning violence against abortion providers.

Abortion counselors will also tell you that the stigma attached to the procedure is worse than it's been in years....

One could say, in a sense, that the pro-choice movement has always had the harder job. The choice argument is an analytical one, grounded in theories of privacy and the rights of the mother; the pro-life side has the case with instant visceral and emotional appeal: This is life we're talking about. Things were also bound to get worse when the national tide turned Democratic; whenever a pro-choice person occupies the White House, those who fret about the issue stop giving money to NARAL and the pro-life side reasserts itself (indeed, says Cecile Richards, the head of Planned Parenthood, protests at her clinics are up, up, up).

But these explanations alone can't fully account for the shift in tide. Rather, it's a confluence of things--starting, I'd argue, with technological advances. Generally, science is the friend of progressive political causes. Not this one.

As fetal ultrasound technology improved during the nineties, abortion providers, conditioned to reassure patients that the fetus was merely tissue, found it much harder to do so once their patients were staring at images that looked so lifelike.... [O]rganizations like Focus on the Family began to use this technology to their advantage, sending ultrasound machines to CPCs....

Perhaps just as important, the pro-life movement got very shrewd about its politics, realizing that it had a highly conflicted electorate on its hands. As William Saletan shows with depressing cogency in Bearing Right: How Conservatives Won the Abortion War, the pro-choice movement was never going to win its case on the basis of women's rights. Men, especially southern white men, didn't care. The most persuasive argument it had was an old American standby: The government has no right meddling in your business.

It didn't take long for the pro-life movement to use this argument to its own advantage, realizing that if the public didn't like the government making decisions about abortions, it could force pro-choice legislators to admit that the public wouldn't like the government funding them either. They were right. Soon, pro-choice candidates were running away from public funding and toward parental consent - another constraint the public overwhelmingly prefers, as well as 24-hour waiting periods - and a more libertarian Supreme Court upheld these restrictions in landmark cases in 1989 and 1992.

Yet that still wasn't the worst of it. Until the mid-90s, the political debate over abortion remained mostly in the theoretical realm, with the role of government at its center. Had it stayed there, it's possible we'd be in a different place today.

But in late 1995... FL Republican congressman... Charles Canady had a stroke of insight that would shift it to the realm of both the metaphysical and brutally physical, which is precisely where the pro-life movement wanted it all along.

On the floor of the House, he introduced a bill that would ban so-called "partial-birth abortions".... The procedure was extremely upsetting to behold. In it, the fetus - or is it a baby? - is removed from the uterus and stabbed in the back of the head with surgical scissors. It's a revolting image, one to which the public was ritualistically subjected on the evening news as the debate raged on the House and Senate floors. Defending it was a pro-choice person's nightmare....

Clinton still vetoed the ban in 1996, but it was eventually signed into law in 2003 and withstood a Supreme Court challenge in 2007. More important, women were spooked. "A lot of our patients started asking whether or not the fetus felt pain after that, even if they were early along in their pregnancy," says Albert George Thomas, who until 2 years ago had spent 18 years as the head of the family-planning clinic at Mt. Sinai....

[I]f you want to hear honest talk about the realities of abortion, go speak with... abortion counselors and providers. Even the most radically pro-choice will tell you that the political discourse they hear about the subject, with its easy dichotomies and bumper-sticker boilerplate, has little correspondence to the messy, intricate stories of her patients. They hear about peace and guilt, relief and sin. And it is they who will acknowledge, whether we like it or not, that the rhetoric and imagery of the pro-life movement can touch on some basic emotional truths. Peg Johnston, who manages Access for Women in upstate NY, remembers the 1st time her patients unconsciously began to co-opt the language of the protesters outside. "And it wasn't that these protesters were brainwashing them," she says. "It's that they were tapping into things we all have some discomfort about."

This is quite a brave confession for Johnston - or any pro-choice person - to make. It means making oneself vulnerable to opportunist pro-life activists, who'll happily take those words about uncertainty or moral qualms and repurpose them for their own ends....

But Harris raises a very real and terrible dilemma for those of us who are pro-choice: Engage these questions and you play into the hands of the pro-life movement; refuse to engage in them and you risk living in a political vacuum....

NARAL's Nancy Keenan likes to say that abortion's biggest defenders right now are a "menopausal militia" - a rueful, inspired little joke. These baby-boomers, whose young adulthoods were defined by the fight over the right to choose, will soon be numerically overtaken by a generation of twentysomethings who is more pro-life than any but our senior citizens. As GOP strategists Christopher Blunt and Fred Steeper have pointed out, this group came of age during the partial-birth debate and was the first to grow up with pictures of sonograms on their refrigerators. The major development in reproductive technology during their lifetimes wasn't something that prevented pregnancies but something that created them: IVF....

Given this demographic shift, plus the Stupak Amendment, plus the unavoidable fact that abortion's essential nature is unchanging - it will always involve some brutal nexus of the heart and the mind - it's hard for a pro-choice person like myself to see how the ball rolls forward.

Perhaps Obama will help. This is, after all, a president who went to Notre Dame, a school with a 167-year history of Roman Catholic orthodoxy, and dared to give a speech about abortion.

But what he said was hardly his usual optimistic, paradigm-shifting oratory. All it was was a sober recitation of the problem, one that all-too-painfully explained why public opinion on the subject hasn't budged in 36 years. "I do not suggest that the debate surrounding abortion can or should go away," he told his audience. "No matter how much we may want to fudge it - indeed, while we know that the views of most Americans on the subject are complex and even contradictory - the fact is that at some level, the views of the two camps are irreconcilable."

Contact: Jill Stanek
Source: jillstanek.com
Publish Date: November 30, 2009
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NRLC Leter to the Senate Re: Mikulski Amendment

NRLC Leter to the Senate Re: Mikulski Amendment



The U.S. Senate yesterday (November 30th) began the process of considering amendments to Senator Reid's health care legislation.  The first amendment offered was Mikulski Amendment No. 2791, dealing with federally mandated coverage of "preventive care."   Late today, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) sent senators a letter opposing the Mikulski Amendment, unless it is revised.  A copy of the letter is below.  It is not yet known when the Senate will vote on the Mikulski Amendment.

To the Honorable Members of the U.S. Senate:

The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), representing affiliated right-to-life organizations in all SO states, is opposed to the pending Mikulski Amendment No.2791, unless the amendment is modified in the manner discussed below.

Section 1001 of Senator Reid's pending substitute, the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act," would create a new Section 2713 of the Public Health Services Act, dealing with "Preventive Health Services." Under this provision, all private health plans would be mandated to cover, without cost-sharing, "(1) evidence-based items or services that have in effect a rating of 'A' or' B ' in the current recommendations of the United States Preventive Services Task Force."

The Mikulski Amendment No.2791 retains that mandate, but further specifies that all health plans would also be mandated to cover "with respect to women, such additional preventive care and screenings not described in paragraph (1) as provided for in comprehensive guidelines supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration for purposes of this paragraph." In short, the Reid language makes the "recommendations" of the United States Preventive Services Task Force, regarding "preventive services," into mandates that will bind all health plans. The Mikulski Amendment No.2791 would further empower political appointees at the HRSA to issue mandates that all health plans cover any service "with respect to women" that is declared to constitute "preventive care."

If Congress were to grant any Executive Branch entity sweeping authority to define services that private health plans must cover, merely by declaring a given service to  constitute "preventive care," then that authority could be employed in the future to require all health plans to cover abortions. Therefore, NRLC opposes both the Mikulski Amendment No.2791, and the underlying language of Section 1001, unless additional language is added to explicitly exclude abortion from the universe of services that might be mandated as "preventive care."

Our concern on this point is not hypothetical -prominent pro-abortion advocates are already on record discussing abortion as a category of "preventive health care." For example, a 2009 publication cosponsored by the National Abortion Federation, Providing Abortion Care, explicitly stated that " APCs [ Advanced Practice Clinicians] are especially well positioned within the health care system to address women's need for comprehensive primary preventive health care that includes abortion care." (emphasis added).

It is also noteworthy that when Senator Mikulski offered a similar amendment in the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, it was backed by a long list ofproabortion advocacy groups, including NARAL Pro-Choice America, Catholics for Choice, Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and Medical Students for Choice. A July 8, 2009 letter from these groups asserted that by allowing the Health Resources and Services Administration to issue binding guidelines on preventive services, the "unique preventive health needs ofwomen" would be addressed.

Moreover, when a constituent wrote to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Ca..) earlier this year to urge that abortion be excluded from pending health care legislation, he received an e-mail response dated August 3,2009, in which Sen. Feinstein wrote: "Thank you for writing to me to express your support for proposed restrictions on private coverage of preventative services for reproductive care in health reform legislation. ...I understand your opinion that private coverage of abortion services should be restricted in health reform. However, I believe that reproductive health services should be treated no differently than any other health care service or benefit."

There will be some who endeavor to dismiss our concern that the term "preventive care" could be construed to encompass abortion. However, anyone who genuinely believes that abortion properly will remain outside the scope of future "preventive care" mandates should have no objection to explicitly writing such a rule of construction into the legislation.

In summary: The National Right to Life Committee opposes the Mikulski Amendment No. 2791, unless it is revised to explicitly remove abortion from the universe of services that could be defined as mandated "preventive care" by either the Health Resources and Services Administration or the United States Preventive Services Task Force.

Thank you for your consideration of the concerns of the National Right to Life Committee on this
subject.

Source: NRLC
Publish Date: November 30, 2009
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Obama Education Czar + Planned Parenthood Sex Education = High Teen Pregnancy Rate

Obama Education Czar + Planned Parenthood Sex Education = High Teen Pregnancy Rate



How many times and how many ways can Planned Parenthood say that it is reducing teen pregnancy with its horrifyingly graphic, immoral sex education, when evidence shows quite the contrary to be true?

With Planned Parenthood's own Guttmacher Institute conducting all of the studies on the efficacy of its programs, and Planned Parenthood supervising its own programs in schools, it sometimes appears our teens are doomed to never-ending abuse by the abortion-mongering, sex-hawking organization that exists to "liberate" our society from sexual mores and kill any preborn babies that may get in the way of its push toward "sexual rights" for all, including children.

One case in point is Robeson High School in Chicago. The school made headlines recently because of a revelation that one in seven of its female students is pregnant.

Some media outlets jumped on the opportunity to blame the high pregnancy rate on the fact that the parents are not doing enough at home and that the school is encouraging pregnancy by helping pregnant teens continue with their education.

No mention was made of the fact that Planned Parenthood has been a highly paid consultant with the Chicago public school system for years.

From February 27, 2001, through August 31, 2004, Planned Parenthood was awarded $1,608,100 in consulting fees by Chicago public schools "on a non-competitive basis because of Consultant's unique qualifications to provide a teen pregnancy prevention program." (Emphasis added.) The money emanated from the school's operating fund.

In return, Planned Parenthood was to provide a teen pregnancy prevention program for seventh and ninth graders in 45 Chicago public schools. Students were also given special times to access Planned Parenthood's places of business "for support and guidance."

Incredibly, Planned Parenthood was given authority to oversee itself and "assess the program's efficiency and evaluate participating students' progress in the program."

From September 1, 2004, through August 31, 2006, an additional $1 million was awarded to Planned Parenthood for the same "services." It continued to allow the group to monitor itself and left open the option of renewal for two more time periods.

In 2006, the Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health, which includes Planned Parenthood, led the charge to remove any vestiges of "abstinence-only" education from Chicago public schools by holding a fundraiser at the headquarters of Playboy Enterprises.

The Chicago Board of Education adopted a requirement that "students in sixth grade and beyond" take a comprehensive sex education program (of the Planned Parenthood type) beginning in 2007. (Emphasis added.)

According to a 2006 news report from the Chicago Tribune,

The new program ... [will] provide "age-appropriate and medically accurate information concerning the emotional, psychological, physiological, hygienic and social responsibility aspects of family life."

The courses will be taught in Grades 6 through 12 and include instruction on how to prevent pregnancy through abstinence and contraception, as well as the emotional and psychological consequences of premarital sex and pregnancy.

And who was overseeing the Chicago public schools from 2001 to 2008, when Planned Parenthood was paid in excess of $2 million to reduce teen pregnancy?  None other than Arne Duncan, who was appointed U.S. Secretary of Education in January of this year.

It's enough to make a grown woman cry. But instead of crying, it's time to shout.  Planned Parenthood must be removed from our schools and our communities. Parents must educate their local school board members about the immorality of Planned Parenthood programs and the dangers they pose to our children.

STOPP's proven plan for defeating Planned Parenthood includes a strategy for defeating its sex education programs. Time and time again, when parents have followed this plan, they have been successful in getting Planned Parenthood removed from local schools. Don't wait for someone else to do it. Act now to protect our children from the hellish vice of Planned Parenthood that holds our children hostage to the slavery of unbridled sex and its consequences, and steals their very souls.

Contact: Rita Diller
Source: American Life League via LifeSiteNews.com
Publish Date: December 1, 2009
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Around the World

Around the World



Pro-Life Victory as Northern Ireland

Pro-life advocates in Northern Ireland are celebrating a major court victory today as the Belfast High Court has ordered the recall of health guidelines that they said would have undermined and effectively overturned the province's pro-life laws.

Lord Justice Girvan found that the guidelines failed to deal properly with conscientious objection to abortion and counseling on abortion. The judge said the guidelines were open to misinterpretation, saying the language was "ambiguous" and left doctors and staff unclear as to what was expected of them. The judge said the guidelines needed to be absolutely clear, otherwise they represented "a trap to the unwary."  Click here for more.

Italy Delays Sale of RU 486

The Italian Senate has blocked the sale of RU 486 in the country pending investigations into the abortion drug's safety. Antonio Tomassini, the leader of the committee studying the issue cited the "many doubts" surrounding the drug and the panel voted to postpone its distribution.

This summer the Italian Pharmaceuticals Agency (AIFA) approved the drug, stipulating that it must be administered by physicians in hospitals up to the 49th day of pregnancy, but not sold over the counter in pharmacies. This decision came despite AIFA documentation that noted the deaths of at least nine women who had taken it. In 2008, the Italian Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics reported 16 maternal deaths associated with RU 486.

The committee said it is also concerned with the drug's compatibility with Italian law that allows abortion on demand up to 90 days of pregnancy. Maurizio Sacconi, the Welfare and Health Minister, said, "Italy's abortion laws were not conceived with a pharmaceutical solution in mind." Click here for more.

France Rejects Euthanasia

The French National Assembly has rejected an attempt to legalize euthanasia in a 326 to 202 vote.

"Euthanasia is not a medical act. The right to die is not a medical act," said Union for a Popular Movement party deputy Jean Leonetti, author of a 2005 law on dying that promotes the use of palliative care.

The Alliance for Human Life welcomed the vote, saying that the bill "played on the ambiguity of the word 'dignity'" and "contributed to the confusion on a difficult topic."

Xavier Mirabel, president of the Alliance said, "The French do not want aggressive treatment. When they understand that aggressive treatment does not include euthanasia, most of our citizens are reassured. We therefore ask that the Leonetti law be known and more fully implemented, which requires a more proactive promotion of palliative care."  Click here for more.

Drive Starts to Make Dutch Psychiatrists Justify Not Killing Suicidal Patients!

Of the 2,331 cases reviewed by the regional euthanasia review committees in 2008 only two involved psychiatric patients. All doctors are obligated to report assisted suicides to the committees, who then investigate if all the legal requirements were met. [Me: Studies show that about half are not reported.] "Psychiatrists have a holier-than-thou attitude," Hans van Dam, a nurse and a teacher, said at a symposium organised by the Right to Die-NL foundation in the Dutch town of Ede on Monday. The taboo on assisted suicide for mental patients needs to be broken, Van Dam argued. "To put it bluntly: cancer will kill you in a matter of years, but schizophrenia is forever. The suffering of psychiatric patients can be just as intolerable as many forms of physical suffering," said Eugène Sutorius, a professor of criminal law and a former president of the foundation.  Click her for more.

Objections to abortion could be overruled

The Council of Europe, which is larger than the European Union, is considering a draft resolution that would deny the right of hospitals to opt out of doing abortions.
 
The title of the resolution is "The Women's Access to Lawful Medical Care -- the Problem of Unregulated Use of Conscientious Objection." Joseph Meany of Human Life International tells OneNewsNow that the Council is not concerned about ethics or religious beliefs.  Click here for more. 

Sources: LifeSiteNews.com, Secondhand Smoke, OneNewsNow
Publish Date: November 30, 2009, December 1, 2009
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NEWS SHORTS FOR TUESDAY

NEWS SHORTS FOR TUESDAY
(Referral to Web sites not produced by The Illinois Federation for Right to LIfe is for informational purposes only and does not necessarily constitute an endorsement of the sites' content.)

Cord Blood Stem Cells may Help Treat Heart and Lung Disorders



Two new studies in animals suggest that stem cells from transplanted human-derived umbilical cord blood could help treat some lung and heart disorders. Scientists already know that such stem cells can differentiate into a long list of different kinds of cells in the laboratory, Dr. Won Soon Park of the Samsung Medical Center in Seoul, Korea, co-author of one of the studies, said in a news release. But it's not clear if they can develop into lung-specific cells in the body, he added.
Click here for the full article.


Mother Gives Birth to 15-Pound Baby



Some numbers are just too big to register. It was like that when Wendi Dolton heard a doctor say the number '15.6' moments after giving birth to her third child on Monday. She thought at first he was referring to the time. "And he goes, 'weight.' "And I said, 'wait for what?'" "And he goes, 'no, the weight." Wendi's next response: "Are you kidding me?" No kidding. Wendi had given birth to a baby boy weighing 15 pounds, 6 ounces. "There's been doctors and nurses that have been around here a fair amount of years and they've never seen one that big," says Mike Dolton, Wendi's husband. The Racine, Minnesota parents named their baby boy Axel LaVerne.
Click here for the full article.


Legislation Prompts Vermont Abortion Debate



A state senator is poised to introduce a bill in response to an August car crash that claimed twin fetuses a Bennington woman was carrying. Before the legislation comes off the printer, Patricia Blair knows it doesn't go far enough to recognize the lives she lost. Blair was injured when her van was struck by another car in Bennington on Aug. 10. Her 6-month fetuses — a boy and a girl — died as a result of the crash, which also seriously injured her husband, Randy Blair, leaving him unable to walk. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Richard Sears, D-Bennington, bill would enhance penalties for assaulting a pregnant woman, wording that he believes walks a careful line: creating consequences for harming an unborn child without unfurling a debate about abortion.
Click here for the full article.


Unborn Vitcims Bill to seek Tougher Penalties for Those who Kill a Pregnant Woman



BAYSIDE, NY -- An Arverne woman whose daughter and unborn child were killed on the daughter's due date is going to Albany this week to ask for tougher penalties for those who kill a pregnant woman. Towanda Wimms is seeking support for the Unborn Victims of Violence Act in Albany, which would treat the act of killing a pregnant woman as two murders. Wimms' daughter, Niasha DeLain, a 25-year-old who worked in customer service at a Rockaway Capital One Bank branch, was killed in Ozone Park on her due date and on her father's birthday -- Oct. 25, 2008. She was also pursuing a bachelor's in accounting from the College of New Rochelle.
Click here for the full article.


Many Pregnant Women take Drugs that are Harmful to their Baby



NEW YORK -- With the help of their doctors, women planning to become pregnant should take an inventory of the medications they take, researchers from Canada advise. In a study, they found that many pregnant women still take medications long known to cause birth defects. Some medications with known fetal risk, such as drugs that control epilepsy, are essential during pregnancy, Dr. Anick Berard, at the University of Montreal in Quebec, noted in an email correspondence to Reuters Health. Other medications, such as those that treat severe acne, anxiety and psychiatric drugs, antibiotics, and many drugs prescribed for heart disease and medical conditions, "can and should be avoided," according to Berard.
Click here for the full article.


Monthly Abortion Fee in Senate Health Plan



Although its illegal to use federal money to pay for abortions, the gargantuan healthcare bill presented this week by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will levy a new "abortion premium" fee on Americans in the government-run insurance plan. The much-ballyhooed 2,074-page bill (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) that will start being debated this weekend in the U.S. Senate includes a monthly abortion premium charged to all enrollees in the government-operated health plan. The $848 billion overhaul package is being touted by Reid as a measure that will "save lives" even though it covers a procedure that ends them.
Click here for the full article.


Fourteenth Fort Hood victim forgotten



Washington D.C. - Last week, Maj. Nadil Malik Hasan was indicted on 13 counts of murder for the shootings at Fort Hood which took place on Nov. 5. Missing from the list of victims is the three-month-old unborn child of Private Francheska Velez. The Alliance Defense Fund, a legal alliance of Christian attorneys, has sent a letter to the Office of Staff Judge Advocate at Fort Hood requesting that the murder of Velez's child be included in the case against Malik.

"It would cause a severe and negative impact on morale if Army women were made to believe that the Army valued their children less than they did adult victims of crime. We respectfully request that you enforce UCMJ Article 119a against the suspect," the ADF's letter stated.
Click here for the full article.

Senate to Begin Debate on Obamacare

Senate to Begin Debate on Obamacare



WASHINGTON - The U.S. Senate opens debate on a broad healthcare overhaul on Monday with senators seeking an elusive compromise on thorny issues like a government-run insurance plan, abortion coverage and holding down costs. The debate on President Barack Obama's top domestic priority, which opens at 3 p.m. EST (2000 GMT), is expected to last three weeks or more. Republicans have vowed to do whatever they can to block or delay the bill. The Senate plan is designed to rein in costs, expand coverage to about 30 million uninsured Americans and halt industry practices such as denying coverage to those with pre-existing medical conditions. In a report that offered ammunition to both sides, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated on Monday that insurance premiums could increase by 10 percent to 13 percent by 2016 for those buying coverage independently under the new bill.
Click here for more...

Flyover Tells Notre Dame President Jenkins: Free the ND 88

Flyover Tells Notre Dame President Jenkins: Free the ND 88


   
SOUTH BEND, Indiana - An anonymous advocate for the 88 Obama protesters who were arrested on the University of Notre Dame's campus in May sent an aerial message this month to remind University President Fr. John Jenkins of the arrestees' plight for witnessing to life.

The 88 individuals arrested on the university's campus while protesting President Obama's commencement address and honorary law degree May 17 are still facing charges of trespassing in St. Joseph County court.  While witnesses say pro-Obama protesters were allowed to roam free, the arrested individuals were singled out for displaying any pro-life message - including slogans on the sanctity of life, photographs of aborted children, a large wooden cross, and images of Mary.

While the case is technically out of Notre Dame's hands, Fr. Jenkins has ignored repeated requests from advocates to request leniency for the witnesses, who face up to one year in jail and a $5,000 fine if they are convicted. In a recent interview with LifeSiteNews.com, Thomas More Society President and Chief Counsel Tom Brejcha, who is representing the Notre Dame 88, said that Notre Dame's decision on the case, "would have decisive influence over whether the prosecutions went forward." Brejcha said that were Fr. Jenkins to ask for leniency, his request would "have great weight with the prosecutor."

Thus far, however, Notre Dame has not requested that the charges be dropped.

Thomas Uebbing, a freelance journalist and Notre Dame graduate, photographed a plane carrying the message "Fr. Jenkins ... Free the ND 88" circling the campus grounds just prior to a Notre Dame-Connecticut football game November 21.

Uebbing told LSN that the individual sponsoring the flyover wished to remain anonymous.  In a statement, the sponsor denounced Fr. Jenkins for planning to attend January's March for Life in Washington D.C. while refusing to help the arrestees, saying the attendance would be "empty" and that Jenkins should "do the right thing" by seeking leniency.

Click here for more information on the Notre Dame 88.

Contact: Kathleen Gilbert
Source: LifeSiteNews.com
Publish Date: November 30, 2009
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Abortion giant gives up on case against ex–clinic director

Abortion giant gives up on case against ex–clinic director

'Like so many Planned Parenthood lawsuits, this was baseless'



Former Planned Parenthood director Abby Johnson with Coalition for Life Director Shawn Carney (photo: Coalition for Life)
Planned Parenthood, the American abortion industry's leading player, "quietly" has dropped its lawsuit against a former clinic director who quit her job after watching an abortion.

The news comes from the Alliance Defense Fund, which had been assisting former Planned Parenthood clinic director Abby Johnson.

"This was the latest in a series of national Planned Parenthood scandals," said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Steven H. Aden.

"It wasn't about one woman or one clinic. Planned Parenthood is a national organization that has been kept afloat by hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer funding. The American people need to understand that this organization has been involved in scandal after scandal and has never owned up to them. Like so many Planned Parenthood lawsuits, this lawsuit was baseless, so we are pleased that it has been withdrawn," he said.

Among other accusations, Planned Parenthood falsely claimed Johnson violated a confidentiality agreement and breached an employment contract, even though she never had one, according to the ADF.

WND reported earlier when a judge refused to grant Planned Parenthood's demand for an injunction against Johnson.

The judge also rejected the abortion company's demand for an injunction targeting the Coalition for Life, an organization whose members oppose abortion in the College Station, Texas, area where Johnson had worked.

The ruling from Judge J.D. Langley concluded Planned Parenthood did not offer reasons that would convince him of the need for "the extreme remedy of injunctive relief."

The company had sought court intervention to block disclosure of confidential patient information, which Johnson said she never considered doing anyway.

The ADF confirmed the order withdrawing the lawsuit was issued by the Brazos County District Court.

In its request, Planned Parenthood admitted, "Plaintiffs no longer desire to pursue this cause of action against Defendants, Abby Johnson and the Brazos Valley Coalition for Life."

The request, dated Nov. 13, was signed by the court Nov. 17. Marc Hamlin, district clerk, said, "In accordance with Rule 306A Texas Rules of Civil Procedure you are hereby notified of the entry of the Order on Motion for NonSuit."

WND reported when Johnson was interviewed by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee on his Fox News Channel show:


Click here for view the video

And in an earlier interview with WND, Johnson told of Planned Parenthood's abortion quotas, which she said were needed to generate revenue for the organization.

"We'd have a goal every month for abortion clients and for family planning clients," she said.

Johnson, 29, said the Bryan, Texas, Planned Parenthood clinic performed surgical abortions every other Saturday, but it began expanding access to abortion to increase earnings. She said her turning point came when she was told to assist with an abortion.

"For whatever reason I was called in to help. My job was to hold the ultrasound probe on the abdomen," she said. "When I looked at the screen, I saw a baby on the screen. She was about 13 weeks pregnant at the time. I saw a full side profile. I saw face to feet on the ultrasound.

"I saw the probe going into the woman's uterus. At that moment I saw the baby moving, trying to get away from the probe," she continued.

"I thought, 'It's fighting for its life.' I thought, 'It's life. It's alive.'

"I dropped the ultrasound probe. I scrambled and put [the probe] back in place. So many things were going through my mind. I was thinking about my daughter, who's three," she said.

"I was just thinking, 'What am I doing here? What am I doing here? There was life in here and now there's not.'"

Johnson later was mentioned by name during the U.S. House debate over an amendment designed to limit taxpayer funding of abortions.

In remarks on the House floor, Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., said, "Self-described as 'extremely pro-choice,' but now pro-life, Abby Johnson said she watched an unborn child 'crumple' before her very eyes as the infant was vacuumed and dismembered by a suction device 20-30 times more powerful than a household vacuum cleaner. 'I could see the baby try to move away … I just thought what am I doing … never again.'"

Contact: Bob Unruh
Source: WorldNetDaily
Publish Date: November 26, 2009
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Formal Complaints Ask Michigan AG for Criminal Investigation of Abortionist Hodari

Formal Complaints Ask Michigan AG for Criminal Investigation of Abortionist Hodari


 
LANSING, Mich. - Operation Rescue has filed formal complaints against abortionist Alberto Hodari with the Michigan Attorney General's office and with the Michigan Department of Community Health, asking for investigations in to criminal misconduct in the alleged forced abortion of Caitlin Bruce last year.
 
Ms. Bruce filed a civil suit against Hodari in June. In her suit, she says she withdrew her consent for an abortion after seeing her baby on an ultrasound. She accuses Hodari and his assistant of holding her down and covering her mouth to muffle her screams while Hodari viciously forced an abortion upon her.
 
"We have filed the appropriate complaints to insure that the correct authorities are also investigating possible criminal charges and causes for discipline against Hodari's medical license," said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman.
 
Judy Climer, director of Flint Right to Life, has also filed a separate, similar complaint with the Michigan Attorney General.
 
Bruce never filed her own criminal complaint because "she was young and knew it wouldn't bring her baby back," according to a story that appeared Sunday in the Flint Journal.
 
"While these complaints are too late to help Ms. Bruce, they may serve to prevent this horror from being inflicted upon other women," said Newman. "In fact, evidence shows that Hodari has likely forced abortions on women for at least two decades."
 
The Flint Journal article indicated that an abortion clinic employee present during Bruce's abortion said in a statement that was filed with the suit that Hodari told Bruce that he would not do her abortion and was sending her home, but instead forced the abortion on her. He then grinned as he completed the abortion.
 
Another woman recently told of a similar experience with Hodari in 1988. Jennifer McCoy never considered abortion and had been taken to Hodari's clinic at age 16 under the pretence of receiving a routine obstetrical examination. Hodari assured her that he was only examining her to determine how far along she was, when suddenly Jennifer felt the sharp pain of the abortion.
 
"These two accounts are far too similar to be a coincidence," said Newman. "Even though Hodari denies any wrongdoing, he has also made it clear that he believes abortionists have a 'license to lie.' We are convinced that he lied to Mrs. McCoy, he lied to Ms. Bruce, and now he's lying about his culpability in these horrific crimes. Hodari's behavior is that of a maniac that has likely been abusing women for at least 20 years. It is time that the legal system brings his reign of terror to an end."

Contact: Troy Newman, Cheryl Sullenger
Source: Operation Rescue
Publish Date: November 30, 2009
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Pro-lifers reach protesting settlement

Pro-lifers reach protesting settlement



Pro-life counselors and demonstrators have settled their disagreement with Aurora, an Illinois city, concerning pro-life protests at the city's Planned Parenthood facility.
 
Picketing began with the construction of what became the second-largest Planned Parenthood abortion facility in the U.S. Pro-Life Action League spokesman Eric Scheidler tells OneNewsNow they ran into a serious snag during the protest.
 
"From the very first hour, we had trouble with the police," Scheidler explains. "The police chief at the time came over and was throwing his weight around and really made me feel a sense of hostility from the city, and we were getting contradictory orders right from the get-go." The pro-life advocate says law enforcement officers uttered conflicting instructions like, "You can't stand on the sidewalk; you have to stand on the grass; you can't stand on the grass; you can have signs; you can't have signs; you have to keep moving; you can stand still."
 
It became increasingly apparent to Scheidler that the group of pro-lifers had to fight for their rights.
 
"We filed a lawsuit early on to secure our rights with the city of Aurora," he accounts. "And as city officials realized that they had a problem on their hands because they had not been handling our protests appropriately with respect for our rights, they asked if we would try to come to some kind of settlement."
 
A settlement was reached, and all parties are now on the same frequency as protesters' rights are securely protected when speaking out against abortion facilities. In return, the pro-life group has agreed to a number of provisions and plans to drop its federal lawsuit against Aurora. Demonstrators are no longer being harassed, and this agreement ends the two-year dispute between the city and pro-life advocates.

Contact: Charlie Butts
Source: OneNewsNow
Publish Date: November 26, 2009
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Planned Parenthood pauses personhood effort

Planned Parenthood pauses personhood effort

Pro-life forces are preparing for a court battle to decide whether voters can decide on a Personhood amendment in Missouri.
 
The measure would declare that a human is a person at the biological beginning of life. Personhood Missouri went through all the obstacles in order to launch a petition drive and get a slot on a future election ballot. Personhood Missouri spokesman Dr. Gregory Thompson tells OneNewsNow that a lawsuit has brought the effort to a halt.
 
"Planned Parenthood is the number-one murderer of babies in our country and is being represented by the ACLU, which takes on every perversion that's against God, family and country," the spokesman reports. "They're coming against the secretary of state and the state auditor because they don't like the language of the ballot title."
 
Thompson says Planned Parenthood wants to manipulate and step on the right the people of Missouri have to vote on the issue.
 
"They make hundreds of millions of dollars off of the taxpayers and they're using some of that very money to sue the state to keep us from our constitutional rights of being able to address grievances and [being] able to voice what we decide is best for our families and our nation," Thompson contends.
 
If the election were held and Planned Parenthood lost, the end result, according to Thompson, would take away abortion, which is the clinic's greatest financial resource.

Contact: Charlie Butts
Source: OneNewsNow
Publish Date: November 27, 2009
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Pro-life conference sells out months early

Pro-life conference sells out months early


Pro-life students standing in front
of a Planned Parenthood clinic

Washington D.C. - The National Conference of Students for Life of America, scheduled to be held on Jan 23, 2010, has already sold out.

"I was amazed to see our national conference sell out so quickly this year. It is a true reflection of what my staff has been witnessing on college campuses for the past several months," Kristan Hawkins, the Executive Director of Students for Life of America, told CNA.

The conference will be an opportunity for students across the U.S. to receive training on how to be effective advocates for life, be educated on all of the current issues affecting the pro-life movement, and meet and network with other pro-life students from across the country. It will be held at the Catholic University of America on January 23, the day after the March for Life in Washington, D.C.

"Pro-life students are tired of the some old politics as usual in Washington, D.C. and on their campuses. They are activating like never before to provide resources to women facing unplanned pregnancies in their communities and are standing up to the culture of death policies of Congress and the current presidential administration," Hawkins added.

The conference's website assures readers that next year's conference will be held in a larger venue. But for the 778 participants lucky enough to be registered, the day itself  will feature talks on "Knowing Your Rights on Campus" and "How Abortion Affects Real Women and Men."

The afternoon will host a number of  breakout sessions aimed at helping students become better and more effective ambassadors to their campuses. The sessions will discuss a variety of topics ranging from stem cell research and bio-ethical reform to sidewalk counseling and breaking through apathy on their campuses.

Click here for more information on the conference and the host organization.

Source: CNA
Publish Date: November 28, 2009
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NEWS SHORTS FOR MONDAY

NEWS SHORTS FOR MONDAY
(Referral to Web sites not produced by The Illinois Federation for Right to LIfe is for informational purposes only and does not necessarily constitute an endorsement of the sites' content.)

County Judge in Illinois Delays Parental Notification Regulation



Enforcement of a parental notification law for minors seeking an abortion in Illinois remains on hold, probably until sometime early next year. During a Nov. 19 hearing, a Cook County Circuit Court judge sustained a temporary restraining order against enforcement despite the arguments of three attorneys from the Thomas More Society, an anti-abortion, nonprofit law firm, who support the law. The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, Hope Clinic for Women and Dr. Allison Cowett of the clinic were granted a temporary restraining order earlier in November against the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation.
Click here for the full article.


Researchers seek to prevent unborn deaths in car crashes



Ford Motor-funded research at Virginia Tech and Wake Forest universities is near completion on mathematical models that measure how crash forces affect pregnant women and fetuses.

States are not required to report fetal deaths in data sent to the federal fatal accident system -- some do, and some don't. But researcher Stefan Duma of Virginia Tech says reliable studies show from 300 to 1,000 fetal deaths because of car accidents each year.

Duma says the fatality rate of unborn babies in crashes is about four times the rate for infants to 4-year-olds....

Duma says the mathematical models are a step in the process and that the auto industry could be 15 years away from new technology to help protect fetuses.
Click here for the full article.


Baby Gabriel - No one should be allowed to decide that an innocent life is not worth saving



KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - Alliance Defense Fund attorneys filed an emergency motion in court Monday to save the life of nine-month-old Gabriel Palmer. East Tennessee Children's Hospital says it may abandon his medical care and thus cause his death even though the child is stable and a doctor says he could live for a long time.

The hospital did not change course after a letter sent Friday by an ADF-cooperating attorney on behalf of Baby Gabriel's mother which urged hospital officials to continue his medical treatment. Hospital staff told Catherine Palmer that they will no longer provide medical care for her baby despite her objections. The boy is on a respirator and medications to treat pulmonary vascular problems he developed after procedures that the hospital performed on him in October.
Click here for the full article.


Where Are the Pro-Choicers to Defend the African American Teen Who Says She Suffered a Forced Abortion, Asks Dr. Alveda King



ATLANTA - Dr. Alveda King, Pastoral Associate of Priests for Life, reacted today to the case of an African American teenager who is suing a Michigan doctor for an alleged forced abortion.

"I can't help but notice that no so called 'pro-choice' leaders are rushing to the aid of a black Michigan teenager who says she was held down on an operating table while an abortionist took her baby without consent," said Dr. King.  "The silence of the pro-abortion 'champions' is deafening, but the silence of the lambs slaughtered in the clinics is heart wrenching.  Once again, it's clear that the abortion lobby supports only one choice."
Click here for the full article.


Swim Coach Impregnated 14-year-old Girl who then Murdered Baby by Abortion



A former swim coach who pleaded no contest to felony child molestation impregnated one of his victims when she was 14 years old and was investigated in two other areas before he finally was charged in San Jose this spring. The girl, who lived in the East Bay, had an abortion and never told anyone until she was interviewed by police earlier this year as part of the case here, according to court documents released Thursday. Andrew King, 61, former head coach at San Jose Aquatics, who often worked with elite swimmers hoping to make the Olympics, remains in jail in lieu of $3 million bail. He awaits sentencing on charges that could keep him in prison for the rest of his life.
Click here for the full article.


Abortion Drug May Cause Complications



20 Percent of NZ Schoolgirls using RU486 Abortion Drug may face Complications: Parents needn't be told. A new study in Finland published in the October issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology, has found that 20 percent of women using the abortion drug RU486 suffer at least one significant complication. Nearly 4 percent reported two or more complications. NZ parents should be concerned about this Finnish study, says Catherine Gillies, Voice for Life national president. Family Planning in Hamilton has applied to the Abortion Supervisory Committee for a license to provide RU486 medical abortions at their clinic.
Click here for the full article.

Happy Thanksgiving from the Illinois Federation for Right to Life

Happy Thanksgiving from the Illinois Federation for Right to Life

 

The Illinois Federation for Right to Life would like to wish you and your family and warm, safe and blessed Thanksgiving holiday. 

Reid Bill Provisions Threaten Rationing

Reid Bill Provisions Threaten Rationing



WASHINGTON - The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of right-to-life organizations in all 50 states, today released an analysis of provisions in the Senate health care bill crafted by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nv.) relating to the rationing of lifesaving medical treatment. The analysis concludes:
Senior citizens' ability to use their own money, if they choose, to avoid involuntary denial of medical treatment under Medicare could be severely limited.

State commissioners of the new health insurance exchanges created by the bill would be given power to deny people who are trying to obtain policies in the exchange the option of choosing health plans less likely to deny treatment, by limiting what they would be allowed to pay for such policies.

In response to public reaction over the summer denouncing efforts to encourage patients to agree to reject treatment as a way of saving costs, the Senate avoided including the "advance care planning" provisions still in the House bill. Instead, it has sought to achieve a similar result under a different name, Under the title "Shared Decisionmaking," the bill funds and promotes "patient decision aids" to "help" patients make treatment decisions.

A Medicare Advisory Board is established to force Medicare payments below the rate of medical inflation.

In releasing the analysis, which appears below, Burke J. Balch, J.D., director of NRLC's Robert Powell Center for Medical Ethics noted:

Since its inception, the pro-life movement has been as concerned with protecting the lives of older people and people with disabilities from euthanasia, including the involuntary denial of treatment, food, and fluids necessary to prevent death, as it has been dedicated to protecting unborn children from abortion. Sen. Reid's bill contains multiple provisions that threaten these lives.

The Reid Bill contains important elements that would greatly impact the ability of patients to receive unrationed medical care. These elements, combined with inadequate funding - a scheme of "robbing Peter to pay Paul" under which half of the funding comes from cuts in Medicare spending -- would result in rationing life-saving treatment for senior citizens.
Robert Powell Center for Medical Ethics Director Burke J. Balch, J.D., and Legislative Counsel Jennifer Popik, J.D. are available to provide further comment and analysis on the rationing provisions contained in the Reid bill. To arrange an interview, contact the NRLC Communications Department at (202) 626-8825.

NATIONAL RIGHT TO LIFE ANALYSIS: SENIORS BEWARE

Reid Bill Provisions Threaten Older Americans and People with Disabilities

INTRODUCTION

The U.S. Senate is poised to begin debate on the 2,074-page health care bill, crafted by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nv.), when senators return to Washington next week.

In a release last week, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of right-to-life organizations in all 50 states, noted that Senator Reid's bill would authorize the federal government to pay for any and all abortions through a huge federal health insurance program, and also to subsidize purchase of private plans that cover abortion on demand.
Further analysis finds that the Reid bill, like the House bill approved earlier this month, puts the lives of older Americans and persons with disabilities at great risk.

LIMITS ON SENIOR CITIZENS' CHOICE TO SPEND THEIR OWN MONEY TO ENSURE ACCESS TO LIFESAVING CARE

Under current law, Medicare recipients have the legal option, if they choose, of adding their own money on top of the government contribution in order to obtain "private fee-for-service" Medicare Advantage plans that can use the additional premiums to avoid "managed care" limitations on treatments and tests and to ensure access by paying providers market rates. Presently, the Medicare statute prevents the government from second-guessing or imposing limits on the premiums for private fee-for-service plans, allowing beneficiaries to balance cost, benefit, and affordability in making their own decisions whether to purchase such plans. However, Section 3209, on page 920, amends that provision so as to empower the federal government to exclude from competing in Medicare Advantage those plans whose bids it does not like. The consequence is to give the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) the discretion to deny older Americans the choice of plans whose premiums CMS disallows. This amounts to the imposition of price controls, thus limiting what older Americans are permitted to spend for health insurance. Again, being prohibited from paying what may be needed to obtain unrationed health insurance amounts to government-imposed health care rationing.

The provision duplicates the little-noticed section 1175 of the bill passed by the House of Representatives. Neither provision was in bills reported by the committees of either chamber; at the last minute, both were slipped into the versions sent to the floor for action.

The fundamental question is whether seniors will be prevented from using their own money, if they wish, to gain access to insurance that will not ration medical treatment. The significant cuts that the Senate and House health care bills make in Medicare increase the importance of protecting the right of older Americans, if they choose, to use their own money to save their own lives. It is critical that seniors retain this right which would be eliminated by the Reid bill as introduced.

LIMITING THE ABILITY OF CITIZENS TO SPEND THEIR OWN MONEY TO OBTAIN UNRATIONED CARE IN THE HEALTH CARE EXCHANGES

Also, for those eligible to participate in the insurance exchange Sen. Reid's bill limits their right to spend their own money to save their own lives. Beginning on page 37, Section 1003 empowers the State Exchange Commissioner to exclude from the exchange plans offered by health insurance issuers whom the State Commissioner considers have a pattern of "excessive or unjustified premium increases." It is noteworthy that this provision will even have a chilling effect on health plans offered outside the exchange, since insurers will be fearful that if they fully meet the demand for health insurance by employers and others, it may be held against them so as to keep them out of the exchange. While the exchanges are to begin by serving individuals and small businesses, ultimately they are intended to cover even the largest employers, so the possibility of exclusion from so large a market is likely to be a significant deterrent.

This parallels a similar provision inserted in the House bill when it went to the floor, Section 104.

This essentially grants government bureaucrats the discretion to limit what people are allowed to pay for health insurance. Being prohibited from paying what may be needed to obtain unrationed health insurance amounts to government-imposed health care rationing.

PUSHING REJECTION OF TREATMENT TO SAVE MONEY -- RENAMING "ADVANCE CARE PLANNING" AS "SHARED DECISIONMAKING"

The Reid Bill contains a section titled "Shared Decisionmaking." The Reid bill does not include provisions paralleling those in the House bill designed to create incentives for "advance care planning." But Section 936, beginning on page 1106, provides funding to develop and disseminate "patient decision aids" which are to include "relative cost of treatment or, where appropriate, palliative care options" and to "educate providers on the use of such materials, including through academic curricula" (p. 1110). Money is to be awarded to establish "Shared Decisionmaking Resource Centers . . . to provide technical assistance to providers and to develop and disseminate best practices . . ." (p. 1112).The concern with this section is the same as that with the promotion of advance care planning. Given the strong views many in the medical community have about poor quality of life and the considerable emphasis on saving costs (along with the Reid bills defective process for selecting the materials the patients receive), the danger is great these measures will in fact subtly or otherwise "nudge" patients in the direction of rejecting life-saving treatment to save costs.

INDEPENDENT MEDICARE ADVISORY BOARD MUST DRIVE MEDICARE REIMBURSEMENT BELOW THE RATE OF MEDICAL INFLATION

In Section 3403, beginning on page 1000, the Reid bill provides for an "Independent Medicare Advisory Board," given the task of ensuring senior's Medicare meets budget goals that will tighten each year. For fiscal years 2015 through 2019, the bill sets a target rate of growth for Medicare midway between medical inflation and average inflation; for subsequent years the target is the growth in Gross Domestic Product per capita plus 1%.To the extent the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services projects that Medicare growth rates would exceed these targets, the Board would have to act to reduce the gap by specified percentages varying by year. This gap-reducing would likely come through reductions in payments to health care providers, leading those providers to skimp on care or leave the Medicare program altogether.

The recommendations of the Board would automatically go into effect unless Congress, through an expedited procedure, adopted another means resulting in the same reductions; to waive this would require a 3/5 vote.

Source: NRLC
Publish Date: November 24, 2009
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