New York Daily News Joins Media in Abortion-Health Care Funding Coverup
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
August 14, 2009
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — The New York Daily News is the latest mainstream media outlet to join the group of those covering up the taxpayer funding of abortions found in the Congressional government-run health care bills. The News claims that abortion funding isn’t found in the bill, but a Catholic pro-life group notes otherwise.
It’s declaration follows news articles from the Associated Press, CBS News, and New York Times also making similar false claims
"None of the bills working their way through Congress provides any federal funds for abortion," the News reports.
But Catholic League president Bill Donohue says nothing could be further from the truth.
"In today’s New York Daily News, there is an article seeking to debunk various myths about the health care bills. Unfortunately, the two reporters were guilty of floating the myth," he tells LifeNews.com. "Thus does the Daily News join a list of other media outlets that have disseminated this nonsense; AP had the decency to reverse itself."
Donohue says on proofs that abortion funding is included in the bills are seen in the various amendments to specifically make sure none of the health care measures contains abortion funding. Congressional Democrats have defeated every one of those amendments in both the House and Senate.
"Amendments to explicitly exclude abortion from the bills have been sponsored by Rep. Bart Stupak, Rep. Joe Pitts, Rep. Eric Cantor, Rep. Sam Johnson, Sen. Mike Enzi and Sen. Orrin Hatch. In every case, they lost," he said.
He also noted that an amendment added to one of the House bills in committee specifically authorized abortion funding.
"When Rep. Pitts asked committee counsel whether the amendment by Rep. Lois Capps would allow the secretary of health and human services (HHS) to cover abortion in the public plan, he was told it did," Donohue said. "And since HHS head Kathleen Sebelius supports partial-birth abortion, is there anyone in his right mind who thinks she would balk at authorizing abortion?"
Donohue also points to a telling comment from pro-abortion Rep. Zoe Lofgren in a recent town hall meeting, where she admitted abortion funding is in the bill.
"Abortion will be covered as a benefit by one or more of the healthcare plans available to Americans, and I think it should be," she said in a videotape provided to LifeNews.com.
Donohue said abortion doesn’t have to specifically be mentioned in the bills for it to be paid for at taxpayer expense once they are finalized.
"Let’s be frank: abortion is no more mentioned specifically in these bills than appendectomies are, but because both are legal, both are understood to be included," he said. "That is why attempts to exclude abortion were made. That they failed should settle the issue."
Related web sites:
Catholic League – https://catholicleague.org
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