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WASHINGTON (Updated July 15, 2009) – Congressional Democratic leaders are aiming
to bring massive "health care reform" bills to the floor of the U.S. Senate and
the U.S. House of Representatives during the last week in July -- bills that
National Right to Life says "would result in the greatest expansion of abortion
since Roe v. Wade."
On July 15, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee
approved a massive bill sponsored by Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) on a 13-10 party
line vote. A day earlier, the House Democratic leadership unveiled a similar
1000-page bill, H.R. 3200.
"The Kennedy bill and the House Democratic leadership bill would result in the
greatest expansion of abortion since Roe v. Wade," said NRLC Legislative
Director Douglas Johnson. "These bills, which President Obama is pushing hard,
would result in federally mandated coverage of abortion by nearly all health
plans, federally mandated recruitment by abortionists by local health networks,
and nullification of many state abortion laws. They would also result in federal
funding of abortion on a massive scale. The pro-life movement needs to go to
Condition Red on these bills, because they pose a mortal threat to the unborn
and they are on a fast track to enactment."
Before approving the Kennedy bill, the Senate HELP Committee rejected a series
of NRLC- backed amendments offered by pro-life Republican members of the
committee. Specifically, the committee's Democrats (with the exception of Sen.
Bob Casey, D-Pa.) voted down an amendment by Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wy.) to prevent
health plans from being required to pay for and provide access to abortions, an
amendment by Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) to prevent federal funding of
abortions, and an amendment by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Ok.) to prevent nullification
of many state laws regulating abortion. The pro-abortion majority even rejected
a second Coburn amendment to protect the right of health-care providers to
refuse to participate directly in providing abortions.
Both the Kennedy bill and the House bill (H.R. 3200) would empower federal
officials to mandate coverage of abortion on demand in virtually all health
plans. Both of these bills would also result in massive federal subsidies for
abortion on demand. Both of the bills would require expansions of abortion
providers in many areas of the country (referred to by pro-life analysts as the
"abortion clinic mandate"), and would result in nullification of at least some
state abortion regulations.
The imposition of sweeping pro-abortion mandates as part of “health care reform”
is currently the top priority of many pro-abortion organizations, such as the
Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA). These organizations are pushing
for the abortion mandates both in public statements and in less visible lobbying
efforts. In April, the president of PPFA said that her organization intends to
use the health care legislation as a "platform" to guarantee access to abortion
to "all women." Likewise, the National Abortion Federation, an association of
abortion providers, said, "NAF supports health care reform as a way to increase
access to comprehensive reproductive health care, including abortion care, for
all women."
A third version of health-care restructuring legislation is still being written,
behind closed doors, by members of the Senate Finance Committee. On July 1, both
PPFA and NARAL sent out national legislative alerts expressing alarm that some
Republican Finance Committee members were pressing for bill language to exclude
abortion from the scope of the mandates and subsidies in the Finance Committee
proposal. Also on July 1, the Reverend Carlton W. Veazey, president of the
Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC) , sent out an alert to that
organization's e-mail list headed, "Urgent! Access to Abortion Services
Threatened." The alert said, "Let there be no mistake, basic healthcare includes
abortion services. . . . Reproductive healthcare, including abortion services,
is an essential component of women's health, and we must act now to make sure
women get a fair shake in the final healthcare reform bill." (RCRC is made up of
a number of religious bodies, including the Episcopal Church, United Methodist
Church, Presbyterian Church USA, and United Church of Christ.)
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On July 17, 2007, during Barack Obama's campaign for the Democratic presidential
nomination, he appeared before the annual conference of the Planned Parenthood
Action Fund. Speaking of his plans for "health care reform," Obama said, "in my
mind, reproductive care is essential care, basic care, so it is at the center,
the heart of the plan that I propose." [emphasis added] Under his plan, Obama
explained, people could choose to keep their existing private health care plans,
but "insurers are going to have to abide by the same rules in terms of providing
comprehensive care, including reproductive care ... that's going to be
absolutely vital."
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