Pro-Life Group Runs "Harry and Louise" Ad Against Pro-Abortion Health Care Bill
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
July 29, 2009
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — A national pro-life organization has launched an advertising campaign in five select states to warn about the pro-abortion dangers associated with the health care restructuring plans in Congress. The Family Research Council says the bills could mandate abortion coverage and taxpayer-funded abortions.
During a live webcast Tuesday night, which FRC officials tell LifeNews.com 49,000 pro-life advocates viewed, FRC president Tony Perkins unveiled a new television ad.
The ad features an elderly couple reminiscent of the famous Harry and Louise ad that targeted the Clinton health care plan.
"And to think that Planned Parenthood is included in the government-run health care plan and spending tax dollars on abortions," a man says to his wife. "They won’t pay for our surgery, but we are forced to pay for our abortions."
The commercial will run in five states, including Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Alaska, Louisiana, and Nebraska and is meant to generate calls and emails to members of the House and Senate.
The hard-hitting ad lays out two key threats should President Barack Obama’s plan become reality — rationing and taxpayer funded abortions.
Patients, particularly the elderly, will face denial of vital treatments while at the same time be forced to pay for abortions, the ad says. The ad urges viewers to tell Congress to oppose the government takeover of health care and to oppose a health care plan that will deny care to "our greatest generation" and deny life to "our future generation."
"In a world of health care rationing, the elderly, the handicapped and the frail are the most likely to lose their lives because care was delayed or denied," Perkins told LifeNews.com.
Perkins says similar health care systems in other nations leads to rationing.
"Under the government-run plans in England and Canada, the countries’ sick and elderly aren’t getting the care they need," he explained. "As a result, their system isn’t improving lives but prematurely taking them. Here in the United States, President Obama’s rationing would mean that you and I could be denied basic care while our tax dollars are used to underwrite a mother choosing to end the life of her unborn child."
Perkins says Americans need to be aware that Congressional leaders are intent on allowing the rationing of health care.
"This is what the White House and Congress mean when they say they will cut costs. It means cutting off your access to health care services by creating the legal authority to do so, while stopping any provision becoming law that would prevent rationing," he said.
Perkins promises to work with pro-life lawmakers and other pro-life groups to mitigate the euthanasia and abortion concerns in the bills.
His group "will continue to work to mobilize a coalition in opposition to the health care plan in its current form which will force taxpayers to fund abortions, violate the conscience rights of medical workers, and impose a massive tax and debt burden on American families."
Related web sites:
View the ad, "After a Government Takeover of Health Care" –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxFC9Af3W1U
Family Research Council – https://www.frc.org
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