Health Care Reform Bill Would Allow Abortion Business in Public School Clinics

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Aug 17, 2009   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Health Care Reform Bill Would Allow Abortion Business in Public School Clinics

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
August 17
, 2009

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Most of the focus on the pending bills in Congress for a government-run health care system focus on either the abortion funding and coverage or the rationing aspects of the legislation. But, the bills also contain a section allowing the nation’s biggest abortion business to enter public schools.

In Title V of H.R. 3200, Subtitle B, called School-Based Health Clinics, outlines a new federal program where the government would fund health clinics near or in the nation’s public schools.

However, Section 399Z indicates that school officials won’t be responsible for administering the clinics. Instead, that responsibility falls to the clinic sponsor, which could be Planned Parenthood — the nation’s largest abortion business which does more than 350,000 a year.

The section says "the SBHC sponsoring facility assumes all responsibility for the SBHC administration, operations, and oversight." Under the bill, a "sponsoring facility" is "a hospital, a public health department, a community health center, a nonprofit health care agency, (or) a local educational agency."

Victor Medina, writing in an opinion column for the Dallas Republican Examiner, is worried about the practical effect of the language.

"Such broad wording outlining the qualifications for government funds and access to schoolchildren could open the door for groups like Planned Parenthood to operate the clinics in schools with no oversight and full federal government support," he says.

"The clinics would be funded by federal grants awarded by the Obama administration, which has made it clear that they expect Planned Parenthood to play an active role in their proposed health care system," he says.

Medina says he is not surprised that Planned Parenthood is included in the bill and could be given unprecedented access to teenagers and pre-teens to promote abortion.

The abortion business has had a close working relationship with the Obama administration since its beginning.

Obama met with Planned Parenthood officials as early as July 2007 and said in a speech that he would essentially fulfill its legislative agenda.

After Obama took over the White House in January, he appointed several former Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion organization staffers to key policy position.

The Obama administration extended an invitation for Planned Parenthood to participate in a health care meeting that resulted in the pro-abortion bills now before Congress.

Then, in July, Tina Tchen, the director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, spoke at the opening session of the Planned Parenthood 2009 Organizing and Policy Summit.

"Among the participants in the summit were over 200 teen educators. School-based health clinics would be an ideal outlet for their expertise," Medina says.

Last week, Cecile Richards, the Planned Parenthood president, participated in a secret meeting at the White House that she spoke about on her social networking web sites but received little public attention.

In July 2009, Sen. Barbara Mikulski, a pro-abortion Maryland Democrat, admitted in a committee meeting that the Senate bill includes Planned Parenthood.

Sign Up for Free Pro-Life News From LifeNews.com

Daily Pro-Life News Report Twice-Weekly Pro-Life
News Report
Receive a free daily email report from LifeNews.com with the latest pro-life news stories on abortion, euthanasia and stem cell research. Sign up here. Receive a free twice-weekly email report with the latest pro-life news headlines on abortion, euthanasia and stem cell research. Sign up here.