Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A pro-life physician who is a member of Congress from Louisiana has been tapped to give the Republican response to President Barack Obama's health care speech tonight. Rep. Charles Boustany is a cardiothoracic surgeon who has a perfect pro-life voting record in Congress.

The official response will be aired on all three of the big television networks, and likely some of the cable networks, immediately following the speech as is done after the State of the Union.

"As a doctor, I know we must lower costs and improve care, which we can accomplish by focusing on strengthening the doctor-patient relationship and working in a bipartisan way," Boustany said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Health care is a kitchen table issue that affects all Americans, and I believe we need an honest discussion about how we come together to fix what’s broken, while building on what works ," he added.

Boustany is expected to criticize Obama for supporting the public option, the government-run health care system that the current bills in the House and Senate set up in a way that would open the door for massive taxpayer funding of abortion.

He is expected to lay out some conservative ideas for reforming health care and challenge Obama to work in a more bipartisan manner rather than pushing through a pro-abortion government-run plan with only Democratic votes.

House Minority Leader John Boehner praised Boustany as “a tireless advocate for reform that lowers health care costs and expands access for the American people at a price our nation can afford.”

“He understands why a Washington bureaucrat – as Democrats have proposed – should never get between a doctor and his patient," Boehner said.

According to the National Right to Life Committee, Boustany has a perfect 100 percent pro-life voting record dating back to 2005 on both abortion and bioethics issues.

That is important given the debate over abortion funding that is taking place concerning the health care reform bills. Both the House and Senate bills include abortion funding in both the public option and the taxpayer subsidies to Americans to purchase health insurance.

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