Pro-Life Group’s Video Shows Hyde Amdt Doesn’t Stop Abortion in Health Care
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
October 9, 2009
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — The Susan B. Anthony List, a pro-life women’s group, has released a new video that exposes how the Hyde Amendment does not protect taxpayers from being forced to pay for abortions in the pending health care bills in Congress.
“I worked with Henry Hyde and personally treasure the legacy of respect he left for women and the unborn. He would be appalled to see his name used to defend the greatest expansion of government support for abortion on-demand since Roe v. Wade," the group’s president told LifeNews.com yesterday.
"I encourage Americans to get the facts at www.stophyding.com, and then use that information to contact Congress and the President, and tell them to stop hiding behind Henry Hyde," Dannenfelser said.
The video was made prior to a recent flap that saw White House press secretary Robert Gibbs mislead reporters by telling them the Hyde Amendment would apply to the health care bills and stop abortion funding when it only affects the Medicare program.
“No matter how many times the President and his allies repeat it, the Hyde Amendment will not protect the taxpayer from government-funded abortion on-demand in health care,” Dannenfelser said in response.
“The truth is, without an explicit exclusion, abortion will be covered in any public plan," she affirmed. "Abortion will also be subsidized by our tax dollars in private plans through government subsidies. Yet such language has been voted down five times, three times in the House and twice in the Senate just last week."
Dannenfelser asked President Barack Obama and his administration to level with the American people.
"All this dodging, weaving, and obfuscation by abortion advocates needs to stop," she said. "If the President is sincere about not funding abortion on-demand in health care reform, all he needs to do is endorse separate Hyde amendment language in health care legislation. The American pro-life majority is waiting.”
The federal law referred to by Gibbs is the Hyde Amendment, language which only applies to federal taxpayer dollars appropriated for programs implemented through the Department of Health and Human Services.
The Hyde Amendment, however, does not apply to new programs created outside this framework – namely any new programs created under the banner of health care reform legislation. In fact, both the House and Senate bills explicitly authorize government-backed abortion coverage for the first time in decades.
Aside from the public plan, under which the government would directly fund elective abortion, both H.R. 3200 and the two senate bills (S.1679 and the Senate Finance Committee bill crafted by Senator Baucus) would use federal funds to pay part of the cost of premiums of private health plans that cover elective abortions.
Related web sites:
SBA – https://www.sba-list.org
Video – https://www.stophyding.com
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