(Don Nelson) – On Thursday night, in his debate with pro-life candidate Sharron Angle, Senator Harry Reid refused to say that abortion should not be covered under the health care reform act that Reid wrote.
When the moderator asked Reid and Angle a simple yes no question, “do you think the health care reform act should include coverage of abortion,” Angle said “no,” but Reid refused to say no.
Instead, Reid said “the law we passed maintained Hyde, the Hyde amendment.” When the moderator asked, “That would be it? Yes or no?” Reid said “under the law that exists today, the Hyde Amendment, which has been the law in this country for thirty years, is still there.”
Harry Reid knows that the Hyde amendment will not prohibit government funding or subsidies of abortion through the health care reform law he wrote. Harry Reid has been in the House and Senate for 28 years and he knows that the Hyde amendment does not apply to the health care reform law that he personally wrote.
Reid also knows that not only is the Hyde amendment not permanent law and that it is a yearly patch that must be voted on every year, Reid knows that the Hyde amendment applies only to funding through the department of health and human services and covers Medicaid.
Other prohibitions, like the ban on federal funding for federal employees, the military, Indian health care and others, are covered by separate amendments. The Hyde amendment will continue to be necessary, but will not stop funding through health care reform.
Harry Reid had the chance to make sure that a Hyde type amendment was included to keep government funding and subsidies for abortion out of his health care bill. The Stupak amendment to the House of Representatives’ health care bill closely replicated the Hyde amendment and would have excluded government funding and subsidies of abortion under health care reform.
But after the House passed its bill with the Stupak amendment, Reid refused to include that same Stupak language in his bill. And when an identical Senate version of the Stupak amendment to keep abortion out of health care was submitted, Reid dutifully went to the Senate floor to keep it out.
Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards explained later, “At a crucial moment, Majority Leader Reid went to the floor of the U.S. Senate to deliver his speech against the Senate version of the Stupak amendment.”
Reid also knew it takes 60 votes in the Senate to take out language keep abortion out of health care and 60 votes to put it in by an amendment. That means that Reid chose to give the advantage to Planned Parenthood and abortion advocates.
Reid’s repeated statement that the Hyde amendment will keep abortion out of health care shows his contempt for Nevadans, contempt for the truth and shows that he will say and doing anything to maintain his grip on power and to advance the interests of Planned Parenthood* and the abortion industry.
Harry Reid cannot be trusted to tell the truth on abortion and no pro-lifer can trust him when he says he is pro-life. It’s time for Reid to “man up” and tell the truth about abortion.
(Don Nelson is president of Nevada LIFE)
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