Democrats Will Keep Abortion Funding in Health Care, All Republicans Oppose Bill
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
March 12, 2010
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — One of the top Democrats in the House confirmed today that congressional leaders have no plans to pursue any changes to the abortion funding found in the Senate health care bill the House will attempt to pass. Meanwhile, the top House Republicans says no GOP members plan to vote for the bill.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said the reconciliation process Democrats plan to use to push the Senate bill will not allow for any changes in abortion funding or promotion.
"It is clear that that matter cannot be dealt with per se in the reconciliation bill. We’ll have to deal with it pretty much as is it at this point in time," Hoyer said, according to Politico.
Hoyer also made it appear that future talked of outside-the-box ideas on how to cut out the abortion funding won’t happen.
“We have not discussed a third way,” Hoyer told reporters about any discussions with top pro-life Democrat Bart Stupak. “I’ve talked to Mr. Stupak, but I made it clear I wasn’t negotiating."
As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and one of her top lieutenants have said, Hoyer suggested enough pro-life Democrats will go along with the abortion funding and promotion to pass the bill.
“We don’t want to go without their votes, but we do want to forge ahead,” Hoyer added, according to Politico. As you know, Mr. Stupak has made it very, very clear that he’s very strongly in favor of achieving health care reform in this Congress. And I think that a lot of his colleagues feel the same way.”
Hoyer said Democrats “are hopeful that we’ll get the majority, and we believe we’ll get the majority.”
After the interview, Hoyer announced that the plan LifeNews.com reported on on Thursday is nearly ready to go and the House Budget Committee will likely hold a first vote on Monday.
Meanwhile, House Minority Leader John Boehner said today he is confident every Republican in the House will vote against the pro-abortion health care bill.
When the House considered its own version of the measure last year, only one Republican voted for the bill even with it having an abortion funding ban.
"I am confident of that," Boehner said about the unanimous opposition on MSNBC.
"Yesterday they made clear that the Stupak language with regard to prohibiting the public funding of abortions will not be part of their package, and as a result Rep. Joe Cao from Louisiana, the only Republican who did vote yes, is likely to vote no," Boehner said.
Under the Senate health care bill that will be the main bill Obama and Democrats push through Congress, there is no ban on abortion funding. While some states can opt out of funding abortions under the plan, taxpayers in other states will be forced to pay for them.
But the bill contains other pro-abortion problems that are concerns for pro-life advocates.
The bill requires that at least one health care plan be promoted across the country that pays for abortions, more abortion funding would come via the affordability credits, and many of the so-called limits on abortion funding in the Senate bill are temporary and could expire or be overturned at a later date.
The Senate health care bill also pays for abortions under the Indian Health Service program.
And it contains the Mikulski amendment that would allow the Obama administration to define abortion as preventative care and force insurance plans to pay for abortions.
Finally, the Senate bill does not contain language needed to offer full conscience protection for pro-life medical workers and facilities.
The new Obama health care plan proposing final changes to the Senate bill so it can move through Congress corrects none of these problems outlined by leading pro-life groups as reasons for pro-life advocates to oppose the government-run health care bill.
And the changes Obama submitted for the Senate bill under reconciliation actually increases the potential abortion funding for Community Health Centers.
ACTION: Contact your House member at https://www.House.gov and urge a no vote on the pro-abortion health care bill.
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