Pro-Abortion Groups Upset by Stupak, Oppose Health Care Bill, Lobbying Obama
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
November 6, 2009
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — In the fallout from yesterday’s votes on the government-run health care reform bill and the Stupak amendment to remove abortion funding from it, pro-abortion groups are angry and upset. They promise to press Democrats in the House and Senate to remove Stupak and say they will oppose the bill if not.
"While there are some who are satisfied with the health care reform bill that passed in the House of Representatives late Saturday night, I am not one of them," Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards writes in a tersely-worded email.
Richards said "the Planned Parenthood Federation of America has no choice but to oppose HR 3962" now that the Stupak amendment has been added.
She complained that despite the aggressive efforts her group took to defeat it, the Stupak amendment passed by a large bipartisan majority and "the bill that passed late Saturday night includes a ban on private abortion coverage."
Richards said in the email LifeNews.com obtained that her group would put enormous pressure on pro-abortion President Barack Obama to ensure that the health care bill in the Senate keeps abortion funding currently in it.
"Opponents of legal abortion and health care for women are emboldened by Saturday night’s vote and ready to bring their ban on abortion to the Senate floor. But now it’s our turn. And this time we are going to use our strongest weapon: the White House," she writes supporters today.
"That’s why, today, we are calling on President Obama to ensure that lawmakers, especially those in his own party, support health care reform that protects women’s access to reproductive care as the next round of debate and voting occurs in the Senate," she added.
Richards said Obama needs to make good on his quid pro quo he promises Planned Parenthood before the presidential campaign.
"Obama campaigned on a promise to put reproductive health care at the center of his reform plan. Supporters of women’s health voted for him and contributed to his campaign in record numbers — and now it’s time for the president to reaffirm his commitment," she writes.
The pro-abortion National Organization for Women also says it is opposed to the House-passed health care bill now that the Stupak amendment has been added.
"We cannot and will not support a health care bill that strips millions of women of their existing access to abortion," NOW said in a statement LifeNews.com received.
NOW said it calls on the Senate to approve a health care bill with government abortion funding intact and "calls on President Obama to refuse to sign any health care bill that restricts" taxpayer funding of abortions.
Pro-abortion groups will likely receive support from the same pro-abortion lawmakers who voted for the House health care bill last night.
House Minority Leader John Boehner asked three different committee chairman if they would ensure that the Stupak amendment remains in the final version of the health care bill that would eventually emerge from a conference committee and, in each case, they provided no guarantees.
Rep. Jan Schakowsky, an Illinois Democrat, told CSPAN she believes the language will ultimately be removed and vowed to vote against the final bill after conference if it was not.
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