Sebelius Attacks Republicans on Abortion at NARAL Event

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Oct 6, 2011   |   10:54AM   |   Washington, DC

Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, pro-abortion President Barack Obama’s top health official, attacks Republicans as supposedly anti-women during a keynote speech before NARAL activists yesterday.

Sebelius hosted a massive fundraiser for one of the nation’s biggest pro-abortion organizations and her speech comes at a time when the Obama administration is already cozying up to pro-abortion groups to raise the financial and grassroots support he needs from liberal Democrats to have a shot at winning his re-election bid next year. Sebelius’ speech follows one from the chief of staff to First Lady Michelle Obama at a prior NARAL event.

The former Kansas governor was the featured speaker at the 17th annual “Power of Choice” luncheon NARAL threw in Chicago at The Standard Club in Chicago, Obama’s stomping grounds. The event is clearly a big fundraiser for NARAL as tickets for anyone other than college students and young professionals started at $200 and top sponsorship levels range anywhere from $2,500 to $25,000.

“We are in a war,” Sebelius said, according to an AP report, as she accused the GOP of attacking women’s health by virtue of members of the party in Congress pushing to de-fund abortions and pro-abortion groups like Planned Parenthood. “We’ve come a long way in women’s health over the last few decades, but we are in a war.”

“They don’t just want to go after the last 18 months,” she said of supposed GOP attempts to roll back women’s rights, “they want to reverse a half-century of “progress women have made in comprehensive health care in America.”

She said Republicans were wrong to cut funding for family planning services at the Planned Parenthood abortion business, even though studies show promotion of birth control and contraception do not lower the number of abortions.

“Forty percent of unplanned pregnancies end in those women seeking abortions,” the HHS secretary said. “Wouldn’t you think that people who want to reduce the number of abortions would champion the cause of widely available, widely affordably contraceptive services?”

Sebelius also complained about pro-life advocates exercising their free speech rights by protesting outside the event.

“I know that some people were a bit appalled at walking through the demonstrators as you came to this lunch,” Sebelius said. “It is a discomfort when you’re coming to lunch, but think about the women who are trying to tap into the health services they desperately need who have to go through that kind of gantlet in order to access all-too-infrequent services.”

“If we can fight through the misinformation and get Americans the facts, I’m confident we can keep moving forward to a day when all American woman have access to the comprehensive health services they need and the right to make their own choices about their bodies and their own futures,” Sebelius said, promising that the Obama administration “will be fighting with you every step along the way.”

NARAL touted Sebelius’ appearance saying she “is guiding the implementation of the historic Affordable Care Act,” the Obamacare legislation that contains abortion funding and rationing concerns. Although NARAL has been worried about whether Obamacare, once fully implemented, will fund abortions, Bill Saunders of Americans United for Life says there’s no doubt that will happen.

“The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) permits insurance plans that cover abortions to participate in new state Exchanges, and to even receive government subsidies through the tax-credits that participants receive,” he says. “However, the PPACA requires such plans to have two “pots” of money for premiums.  One pot, funded entirely by a portion of the premium paid by a participant in the plan or the participant’s employer, may only be used to pay for abortions.  The other pot covers everything else, and is partially funded by the government subsidies.”

Sebelius’ appearance at the fundraiser is no surprise, given that the Obama re-election campaign will need to find a way to convince Americans that passing Obamacare and having a government-run health care scheme that funds abortions is a good thing will be central to whether or not Obama gets four more years in the White House.

The Obama administration has already gone as far as spending taxpayer dollars promoting Obamacare during the 2010 elections.

Recent documents obtained by the legal group Judicial Watch via a Freedom of Information Act request reveal the Obama administration spent more than $1 million promoting the Obamacare law that funds abortions and presents rationing concerns before the 2010 elections.

The FOIA documents have HHS officials talking about promoting Obamacare in email conversations with The Ogilvy Group, a public relations firm the Obama administration hired to promote Obamacare in the final days before the mid-term elections that resulted in massive pro-life gains in the House and Senate and Republicans taking over the House from pro-abortion Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The actions are a potential violation of the Hatch Act, which indicates government officials may not “use [their] official authority or influence for the purpose of interfering with or affecting the result of an election.”