Obama to Sign Pro-Abortion Health Care Bill Tuesday, Will "Keep Word" on Order
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
March 22, 2010
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius announced this morning that President Barack Obama will sign the pro-abortion health care bill into law on Tuesday. She also pledged Obama would "keep his word" on signing an executive order purporting to ban abortion funding.
The House approved the Senate health care bill, that funds and promotes abortions, on a narrow vote Sunday night.
The vote came after Rep. Bart Stupak and a group of "pro-life" Democrats reached an agreement with Obama to support the health care bill in exchange for an executive order that will supposedly ban abortion funding in the bill.
However, pro-life groups opposed the deal saying an executive order can’t be used to change federal law and pointing out that the order itself wouldn’t stop the several ways in which abortions are funded and promoted under the legislation.
Sebelius said in an interview with the "Early Show" on CBS that Obama will sign the bill Tuesday and she claimed Americans will be "enthusiastic" about the measure.
Sebelius said she was "absolutely convinced" that "once people understand what’s in the bill and the fact that a lot of what they’ve been hearing has never been contemplated, has never been in the bill, that they’ll be very enthusiastic about what Congress did last night."
Asked whether Obama would keep his word and sign the disputed executive order, Sebelius said "Clearly, he intends to keep his word."
"He’s kept his word all along. This is the kind of reform he said would happen if he were elected president. He talked about this for two years on the campaign trail. And here we are with, finally, a promise kept to the American people," the pro-abortion HHS Secretary told CBS.
Meanwhile, moments after the House voted to approve the pro-abortion bill, Florida’s Attorney General announced he will file a lawsuit to declare the bill unconstitutional.
Bill McCollum will join Attorneys General from South Carolina, Nebraska, Texas, Utah, Pennsylvania, Washington, North Dakota and South Dakota to file a lawsuit against the legislation.
"The health care reform legislation passed by the U. S. House of Representatives this evening clearly violates the U.S. Constitution and infringes on each state’s sovereignty," McCollum said in a statement late Sunday.
"If the President signs this bill into law, we will file a lawsuit to protect the rights and the interests of American citizens," he added.
After passage of the pro-abortion health care bill, pro-life groups issued statements saying they were disappointed.
“Today, Congress ignored the explicit wishes of the American people by voting to establish taxpayer-funded abortion," Americans United for Life president Charmaine Yoest told LifeNews.com.
"This reversal of long-standing federal policy will not stand. Furthermore, the assurance by the White House to address the problem of abortion funding in the health care bill through use of an executive order is an open acknowledgement that the bill just passed is pro-abortion legislation," she added.
Under the health care bill, 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 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 bill does not contain language needed to offer full conscience protection for pro-life medical workers and facilities.
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