Pro-Life Blacks, Democrats, Doctors Head to Congress to Oppose Health Care Bill
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
August 17, 2009
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — A coalition of pro-life blacks, doctors and Democrats are headed to Capitol Hill tomorrow to press the case for getting abortion out of the Congressional health care bills. They will be joined by Alveda King, the niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who will ask that Congress not expand abortions.
The participants will host a press conference and then take their case to the halls of Congress to meet with members of the House and Senate and their staff.
In a statement, King tells LifeNews.com that the health care legislation takes the wrong approach by targeting unborn children with abortion instead of assisting them with health care.
“The unborn and elderly should be included in health insurance reform as recipients of care, not victims of genocide,” King said.
She said pro-life advocates have no problem with promoting better legitimate health care, but can’t support bills that open the door for more abortion funding.
"We support procreative reproductive health care. Abortion is not health care and should be specifically excluded from any pending reform legislation," King said.
King also said the bills target the elderly with a promotion of assisted suicide and health care rationing when they should be opening the door for more protections and care for vulnerable people.
"And we say yes to facilitating the care, not the demise, of the elderly and infirm," she said.
King will join Day Gardner of the National Black Pro-Life Union, Kristen Day of Democrats for Life, and Donna J. Harrison, M.D., of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists at the press conference.
Bishop Harry Jackson of the High Impact Leadership Coalition, and Pastor Dean Nelson of the Network of Politically Active Christians will also attend and discuss with Congressional staff why abortion must not be increased by including it as a part of health care legislation.
“As a post-abortive mother and victim of the harsh aftereffects of abortion, I know firsthand the pain and grief of this form of genocide. Millions of babies, including my own, are dead from this population control campaign,” King adds.
“I was deeply moved by the statement of Representative Joseph Cao of Louisiana who said he would rather lose his seat in Congress than vote for a bill that funded abortion," she said. "His elevation of others’ lives over his own personal interests is not only the mark of a true statesman, but of a humble member of the Beloved Community of which Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. often spoke.”
“Uncle Martin’s dream includes everyone,” added Dr. King. “Now is the time for Democrats, Republicans, and Independents to join together in a ‘dream choir’ to proclaim that health care reform should also include everyone, young and old, born and unborn.”
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