Breaking News Archive 2010
Broken Promises
“There are some folks out there who are, frankly, bearing false witness, but I want everyone to know what health insurance reform is all about… you’ve heard that this is all going to mean government-funding of abortion. Not true.” – President Obama, August 2009
Despite presidential assurances this would never happen, the federal government is giving Pennsylvania $160 million to provide healthcare – including abortions – for residents in a high-risk insurance pool. This comes just months after President Obama signed an executive order “promising” not to spend your money on elective abortions. So much for that.
Now that they’ve been caught in a lie, the administration is jumping to defend their actions. But it’s too little, too late. They’ve already demonstrated they had no intention of keeping that phony promise.
Even though healthcare coverage doesn’t take effect until 2014, the massive bill passed by Congress allows for coverage now of high-risk individuals who are uninsured due to pre-existing conditions.
First, Obamacare bureaucrats started in New Mexico with $37 million, blatantly listing elective abortion as a covered benefit of the state’s high-risk policy. Confronted about the situation earlier this week, the program’s deputy director dug her heels in and said New Mexico would indeed offer abortion coverage. Later that day, she said they changed their minds and would remove abortion from the insurance plan after all. Sounds like someone knew she’d been caught red-handed.
Now the situation is repeating itself in Pennsylvania. Officials are trying to claim “elective abortions” aren’t covered, but the term isn’t even defined in the policy document. Their claim has no legitimate grounding. What the policy does say is that it covers abortions that fall under state law. This includes every kind of abortion except sex-selection abortions which are prohibited in Pennsylvania. All it takes is one abortionist claiming an abortion is “necessary” for a woman’s “well-being,” and it’ll be paid for with your money.
Officials are also skirting around the issue by saying the policies have to comply with federal rules, implying there is something stopping them from using tax dollars for these abortions. But there isn’t. Nothing in the new healthcare law says federal money can’t pay for abortions. (Obama and his pro-abortion cohorts in Congress wouldn’t allow that to be a part of the legislation, and now we know why.)
The one law – the famous Hyde Amendment – that does keep federal money from subsidizing abortions only applies to one area: the annual Health and Human Services appropriations bill. The high-risk healthcare plans like those in New Mexico and Pennsylvania are not part of that budget. Nothing stops these policies, entirely funded with your taxes, from paying for abortion-on-demand.
Now that the word is spreading, administrators are beginning to back down. Unfortunately, the Obama administration continues to aggressively sneak behind our backs, pushing an agenda offensive to our nation’s better judgment and morals. We must remain alert and active, or these broken promises will quickly result in countless broken lives.
Sincerely,
Bradley Mattes
Executive Director
Life Issues Institute
07/16/10
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