Planned Parenthood Promotes Abortion at White House Health Care Summit
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
March 6, 2009
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — With no pro-life groups invited to respond, the president of Planned Parenthood promoted abortion at a White House-sponsored health care summit on Thursday. Cecile Richards called for including access to abortion in any health care reform package President Barack Obama may put forward.
As LifeNews.com reported, the Obama administration’s health care summit included the nation’s largest abortion business and several other groups that take a pro-abortion position.
But no leading pro-life medical groups or top pro-life organizations were allowed to attend the health care event.
Instead, Planned Parenthood’s president pushed for universal health care coverage and better access to health care. However, she wants abortion included and that would likely come at a public cost to taxpayers.
Richards wants abortion included as part of the mandatory coverage package that could also force health insurance companies to include abortion in their plans. That would pass on abortion costs to all people who are insured under their health care plans.
She also touted "preventative health care" and claimed that the abortion business spends most of its time promoting family planning.
Richards urged any health care plan to feature more funding for family planning, knowing that means the federal government sending more in taxpayer dollars to the Planned Parenthood abortion business.
"Coming through the family planning sectors is the way many women begin to access health care," she said.
Richards focused on access and said she wants more done to focus on the health care needs of low-income Americans. For Planned Parenthood, that means having the federal government steer more poor and minority women to their abortion centers.
The summit is an attempt by the Obama administration to focus on reducing and containing costs as well as expanding coverage and Obama sees it as a starting point for tackling the overhaul of health care.
With pro-life advocates worried about the attempt to expand abortion by either making taxpayers fund abortions in a national health care plan or requiring insurance companies to pay for them, pro-life groups have a key interest in the outcome of the debate.
However, Obama appeared to shut them out of the discussion.
Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion business, made the invitation list as did groups that advocate abortion like the Human Rights Campaign, National Council of La Raza and others.
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