(Don Nelson) – Last week, presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs claimed that “there’s a law that precludes the use of federal funds for abortion that isn’t going to be changed in these health care bills.” Gibbs also said “there’s a fairly well documented federal law that prevents it” (funding of abortion).
Mr. Gibbs means the Hyde Amendment. Lying is a strong word, but both Mr. Gibbs and Majority Leader Harry Reid- who says the Hyde Amendment would prevent federal funding of abortion under the proposed health care bills, know full well that the Hyde Amendment will not stop any abortions from being authorized and either funded or subsidized by the health care bills.
The Hyde Amendment will only prevent federal funding of abortion through Medicaid (except for rape, incest and the life of the mother). Further, Hyde is not a permanent law. It is a yearly amendment or rider that has been attached every year for the last thirty three years to Health and Human Services bill. It can be removed if not approved by both Houses of Congress and the President.
There is no federal law that would prevent the new programs created by the health care bills under consideration from paying for abortion on demand. That would require language written directly into the bills. But such language has already been defeated by five congressional committees. Speaker Pelosi is refusing to even allow the House to vote on an amendment to the health care bills to prevent government funding of abortion.
Gibbs, Reid, the President, Pelosi and others have good reason to mislead, lie, obfuscate, and create smokescreens about abortion so they can smuggle abortion into health care reform.
Recent polling by International Communications Research and others show that Americans oppose public funding of abortion (67-19 percent), requiring “people to pay for abortion coverage with their health insurance premiums” (56-32), and don’t want their “own insurance policy to include abortion” (68-24). 43 percent would be more likely to oppose “the President’s proposed health plan.” Only 8 percent would be more likely to support it if it “paid for abortions.”
Senator Harry Reid is leading the charge and providing cover for abortion. Reid has previously said that he could support a health care bill that covered abortion. Reid knows that the Baucus bill and the House bills both cover abortion using public funds and he knows that the Hyde Amendment will not stop abortion coverage in the health care reform bills.
The Baucus bill to be voted on in the Senate Finance Committee this week, will fund and subsidize abortion on demand. It will mandate that at least one federally subsidized insurance program in the proposed health care exchange will be required to cover abortion in each coverage area. Any attempt to say it does not is an effort to deceive the public and smuggle federal funding of abortion into health care.
Funding and subsidizing of abortion is an important issue to Americans. Shame on Robert Gibbs, Harry Reid, Senator Baucus and others who are misleading the public and shilling for the abortion industry.
(Mr. Nelson is president of Nevada LIFE)
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