Pro-Abortion HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to Resign

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Apr 10, 2014   |   6:49PM   |   Washington, DC

She was President Barack Obama’s pro-abortion HHS Secretary and the main administration official in charge of implementing Obamacare, the pro-abortion, pro-rationing government-run health care system.

With Obamacare leading to taxpayer funding of abortions, massive layoffs at hospitals and medical centers and a botched system few seem to be able to sign up on, calls to fire pro-abortion HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius were growing. Now, Sebelius has decided to step down.

A White House official confirmed to multiple news outlets that Sebelious would be stepping down.

Political observers are already saying Sebelius’ decision to quit is nothing more than the Obama administration’s attempt to salvage the Senate in November in the face of what appears to be a Republican takeover of Congress in response to the Obama administration’s failure on health care, the economy, and abortion.

As the New York Times reports, “Officials said Ms. Sebelius, 65, made the decision to resign and was not forced out. But the frustration at the White House over her performance had become increasingly clear, as administration aides worried that the crippling problems at HealthCare.gov, the website set up to enroll Americans in insurance exchanges, would result in lasting damage to the president’s legacy.”

Her replacement is Sylvia Mathews Burwell, currently head of Obama’s OMB.

Sebelius has been President Barack Obama’s main organizer and cheerleader for Obamacare since its inception. The Obamacare scheme has been so bad, Sebelius initially couldn’t get anyone from her own state to sign up for it.

sebelius15Despite the abortion-funding components of Obamacare, Sebelius continued stonewalling Congress on the program.

A March hearing was the third time that Secretary Sebelius has been questioned by a congressional committee on this very issue. Sebelius was questioned about it by the House Energy and Commerce Committee on October 30, and again on December 11, 2013 by the Health Subcommittee of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

A Congressman asked Sebelius if she believed that abortion coverage should be transparent to the person visiting an Exchange website. In response, Sebelius said “I think it should be transparent, what all the benefits are” and “I understand, I think people should know what the benefits are.” To listen to her, an observer would think Secretary Sebelius was some kind of a bystander or onlooker to the Exchanges. But in later questioning by Harris, she conceded that HHS has supervisory authority over all of the Exchanges, including the state Exchanges. Yet, five months after this issue was first brought to Secretary Sebelius’ attention by a congressional committee, she apparently has still taken no action to resolve it.

The congressman questioned Sebelius about the ObamaCare statutory requirement that Exchange plans that cover elective abortion must collect a separate payment from enrollees for the abortion coverage (PPACA Sec. 1303(b)).

As the staff of the Washington Post explained on page 180 of their book, “Landmark: The Inside Story of America’s New Health-Care Law and What It Means for Us All:”

“Insurers can include abortion coverage in plans offered in the exchanges. But everyone who buys a plan that includes abortion insurance – whether a woman or man, of any age – will have to make two separate premium payments: one covering the bulk of the policy and another far smaller one, as little as $1 per month, for abortion coverage. The thinking is that this will further help insurers keep private premiums and federal money separate.”

Sebelius was also criticized for denying a lung transplant to a girl who desperately needed it.

Before becoming HHS Secretary, Sebelius was most notorious for her close relationship with late-term abortion practitioner George Tiller, who has escaped prosecution and accountability thus far for allegedly repeatedly violating state abortion laws. He’d done so in part because of the lax standards of Sebelius and her political allies, to whom Tiller had donated hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Sebelius vetoed a bill the legislature approved that would have strengthened the state’s limits on late-term abortions.

That followed by a year her veto of a bill requiring explicit medical reasons for a late abortion, which was preceded by vetoing other pro-life legislation in 2006, 2005 and 2003.

Sebelius went as far as to coordinate a secret event with Tiller at the governor’s mansion that was criticized because her staff failed to officially report the event.

Her position favoring abortion is so radical and extreme that Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City called on her to stop receiving communion until she disowns her support for the “serious moral evil” of abortion.