(Don Nelson) – Does Harry Reid support the Stupak Amendment which passed the House 240-194 to keep government funding out of health care reform? Harry Reid’s claim that the health care bill he is writing in the Senate will not pay for or subsidize abortion will not be believable unless it contains the Stupak-Pitts amendment to ban the use of government funds to pay for or subsidize abortion.
If Reid’s bill does not contain the widely supported Stupak language, we have strong reason to believe that it will smuggle in abortion with the same phony language that was previously claimed to ban funding of abortion but instead authorized abortion funding throughout pregnancy for any reason and subsidized abortion providing health care plans. If the Reid bill does not contain the Stupak language, it will lead to large scale abortion and overturn longstanding and widely supported policy of not using government funding for abortion.
Stupak-Pitts closely replicates the Hyde Amendment which has prohibited Medicaid funding of abortion for over 30 years. The amendment is necessary because Hyde would not apply to the proposed health care bills. Purchase of abortion insurance with personal funds will not be prohibited.
Reid’s claim that the Senate bill will not fund abortion is unbelievable without the Stupak language due to Reid’s previous comments and outright distortions, obfuscation and lies about previous bills.
• Reid told the Weekly Standard that he “could” support a health care bill covering abortion.
• Reid knowingly told constituents in a town hall meeting that the House bill excluded abortion when it didn’t.
• Reid knowingly told constituents that the Hyde amendment, which he knows only applies to Medicaid, would stop abortion funding in health care when he had to know it didn’t after three decades of votes.
• In the same town hall meeting and other places, Reid said that pro-life claims that the three house bills and the Senate bill funded abortion (without Stupak) were a myth.
The Stupak debate and recent admissions by abortion advocates show those claims were no myth. It showed Reid was shilling for Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry.
Reid is writing the bill and he can make sure this bill does not fund or subsidize abortion by including the Stupak-Pitts Amendment. He is the Majority Leader and no one has the power to stop him from doing it. Reid knows that it is much harder to take something out of the bill and that it is much easier to defend provisions already in the bill. It will be up to Reid to decide who has the advantage when it comes to this important provision.
Reid’s claims to be pro-life are meaningless and a smokescreen because of his votes to fund abortion overseas, votes opposing conscience protections, his votes against anti-coercion and sterilization amendments and his disinformation about the health care bills. It’s no wonder he bragged to the Weekly Standard that Planned Parenthood made him a Nevada legislator of the year.
Does Harry Reid support the Stupak language? If the answer is no, we expect his bill to include the same phony, previously offered “compromise” language which authorized direct funding and subsidization of abortion throughout pregnancy for any reason.
(Mr. Nelson is president of Nevada LIFE)
