Obama Signing Reconciliation Health Care Bill With No Fixes for Abortion Funding

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Mar 30, 2010   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Obama Signing Reconciliation Health Care Bill With No Fixes for Abortion Funding

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
March 30
, 2010

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — President Barack Obama is signing the reconciliation bill — the second part of the new government-run health care system that makes changes to the law he signed last week. Although the bill "fixes" problems on unrelated political issues, it does not alter the abortion funding or promotion in the law he signed.

Obama’s signing comes as Americans still oppose the pro-abortion health care bill, give him low approval ratings and support lawsuits seeking to overturn it in court.

The "fixes" bill received final legislative approval last Thursday with a 220-207 vote in the House and a 56-43 vote in the Senate. In both cases, some pro-life Democrats joined all Republicans to oppose the bill.

Before the final Senate vote, senators rejected a pro-life amendment that would have denied coverage of the dangerous RU 486/mifepristone abortion drug responsible for killing more than 13 women worldwide and injuring at least 1,100 in the United States.

Senators voted 57 to 42 to kill the Coburn amendment and the vote saw pro-life Democrat Ben Nelson, who came under fire for putting abortion funding in the Senate health care bill, join all Republicans in voting against the motion to table.

Under the health care bill Obama signed, there is no ban on abortion funding. While some states can opt out of funding abortions under the plan, taxpayers in other states will be forced to pay for them.

The bill contains other pro-abortion problems that are concerns for pro-life advocates.

It requires that at least one health care plan be promoted across the country that pays for abortions, more abortion funding would come via the affordability credits, and many of the so-called limits on abortion funding are temporary and could expire or be overturned at a later date.

The bill also pays for abortions under the Indian Health Service program. And it contains the Mikulski amendment that would allow the Obama administration to define abortion as preventative care and force insurance plans to pay for abortions.

The new health care law provides millions in funding for Community Health Centers without any prohibition on the money going towards abortions.

Finally, the bill does not contain language needed to offer full conscience protection for pro-life medical workers and facilities.

Those problems were theoretically solved with an executive order Obama signed in exchange for votes from some pro-life Democrats in the House– enough that the passage of the bill was ensured.

However, pro-life groups have said the executive order is worthless. They say an executive order can’t trump federal law, doesn’t address all of the abortion funding problems, could easily be overturned in court and could be reversed by Obama or a future president any time.

As a result, they say the new pro-abortion health care law is the greatest expansion of abortion and abortion funding since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that saw the Supreme Court open the floodgates for 52 million abortions.

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