URGENT - Please call Congress now to stop abortion in health bill!

This is so important I had to pass it on.

The AP accurately reported a few days ago (October 23), that the House Democratic leadership currently does not intend to allow the House to vote on an amendment sponsored by Congressmen Bart Stupak (D-Mi.) and Joseph Pitts (R-Pa.), and supported by pro-life groups including the US Bishops, which would "include the Hyde amendment restrictions in the health overhaul bill."

The AP reported: "Such an amendment would be almost certain to prevail . . . So Democratic leaders won't let Stupak offer it. Instead, it appears they may have to take the risk of letting Stupak try to block action on the underlying bill, which he intends to do by assembling 'no' votes on a procedural measure [the "rule"] that needs to pass before debate can begin."

If Pelosi succeeds in imposing her gag rule, doctors and others involved in health care could lose conscience protections, and we will be looking at an unprecedented level of federal abortion subsidies, paid for by our taxes. See Abortion and Conscience Problems in the Bills and A Pro-Life Look at the Health Care Reform Bills for details.

Thank you if you have already acted on this! Otherwise ...

Please call now to urge your Representative to oppose any Rule that does not include a debate on the Stupak-Pitts Amendment. You will find the phone number(s) and all the info you need by entering your zipcode at this link.

Suggested message: "I am a constituent with a message for Rep (Name). Please SUPPORT the Stupak (STEW-PAK) Amendment that addresses essential pro-life concerns on abortion funding and conscience rights in the health care reform bill. Please OPPOSE any Rule for consideration of H.R. 3200 that would block a vote on this amendment. It's only fair to let all our elected representatives have a say on these important issues."

When I called, the staffer for my Rep was very polite and read back the message to make sure she got it right. It only took a couple of minutes to do.

If you are unable to telephone, or in addition to making the call, please click here to send a pre-written, instant e-mail to Congress. You can add your own comments to the message if you wish.

Please pass this on to pro-life friends and family. The policies adopted in health care reform will have an impact for good or ill for years to come. It is not just a "political issue" ... real lives and freedom of conscience hang in the balance.

Thanks so much!

Don’t Be Fooled

Abortion is in Health Care Reform. Share this video with pro-life friends and family. They deserve to know the truth.

Let's stop abortion expansion **Updated**

Every Pro-Life American Must Tell Congress Now:
“Vote against any health care bill that does not explicitly exclude abortion!”

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Health care bills in Congress could create the greatest expansion of abortion since Roe v. Wade.

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1. Email now: Go to www.NRLactioncenter.com. Follow the simple directions at the bottom of the web page to send urgent messages to your U.S. senators and your U.S. House member. (Messages can be altered if you wish.) You can also check back at this URL for updates.

2. Email now: Email this alert to all your pro-life friends and relatives. Available at: www.stoptheabortionagenda.com/downloads

3. Copy & Distribute: Pass this alert out at pro-life churches and meetings.

4. Make Personal Contact with Your Senators and Congressmen: Use every opportunity: office meetings, fairs, town meetings, and other public events.

5. Telephone: Call the offices of your two U.S. senators and your U.S. House member (through the Senate switchboard: 202-224-3121 and the House switchboard, 202-225-3121). Give your zip code and you will be connected to the correct offices. Or, click here to find direct office phone numbers using your zip code.

Give the senator’s or representative’s staff your name and address and tell them to relay a message, along these lines:

[For senators:] “I strongly urge you to oppose the Affordable Health Choices Act that was approved by the HELP Committee, which would result in coverage of abortion on demand in both government and private health plans. I also urge you to oppose any other health care bill unless it explicitly excludes abortion."

[For House offices:] "I urge you to oppose H.R. 3200, the health care bill backed by President Obama. Under this bill, the federal government would operate a nationwide 'public option' insurance plan that would be authorized to cover abortion on demand. The bill would also provide federal subsidies to private insurance plans that cover elective abortions."

Check for updates at www.NRLactioncenter.com
Please copy and distribute freely.
Source: National Right to Life Committee

See here for more.

Verified - current bills allow government to subsidize abortion

Abortion isn't health care, but here's verification that the current bills allow government subsidizing of abortion.

FactCheck.org article "Abortion: Which Side Is Fabricating?", August 21, 2009

"Despite what Obama said, the House bill would allow abortions to be covered by a federal plan and by federally subsidized private plans. ... The NRLC’s Johnson said 'the bill backed by the White House (H.R. 3200) explicitly authorizes the government plan to cover all elective abortions.' And our analysis shows that Johnson’s statement is correct. Though we of course take no position on whether the legislation should allow or not allow coverage for abortions, the House bill does just that."

Associated Press article, "Gov't insurance would allow coverage for abortion", August 5, 2009

"Health care legislation before Congress would allow a new government-sponsored insurance plan to cover abortions. ... Since abortion is a legal medical procedure, experts on both sides say not mentioning it would allow health care plans in the new insurance exchange to provide unrestricted coverage. ... In the Senate, the plan passed by the health committee is still largely silent on the abortion issue. Staff aides confirmed that the public plan — and private insurance offered in the exchange — would be allowed to cover abortion, without funding restrictions."

Time magazine article, "How Abortion Could Imperil Health Care Reform," August 24, 2009

"The health-care reform proposed by House Democrats, if enacted, would in fact mark a significant change in the federal government's role in the financing of abortions. ... So in effect, anyone who wanted to sign up for the public option, a federally funded and administered program, would find themselves paying for abortion coverage ... Nonetheless, the new system differs markedly from the old federal policy of not involving the government in abortion services unless issues of rape, incest, or life of the mother are at play."

Time also quoted Congressman Bart Stupak (D-MI) as saying that Obama's statements during recent public events signal one of two things: either he does not fully understand the current House bill, or "if he is aware of it, and he is making these statements, then he is misleading people."

Also see:
Abortion Provisions in House's Health Care Bill Unacceptable, Says Cardinal in Letter to House
Video clip of candidate Obama's abortion promise to Planned Parenthood
List of defeated Amendments that would have excluded public funding of elective abortions

Stop the Abortion Mandate

After you watch the video, head over to Stop the Abortion Mandate for more info and action steps.

Kennedy amendment threatens pro-life professionals

The Kennedy amendment is a fake -- despite its title, it does not protect conscience. Please contact your Senators and tell them you want real conscience protections in health-care reform.

The Freedom2Care alert has all the details:

Contacting your U.S. senators today can help stop a deceptive attack on life-affirming physicians, nurses and their patients who decline to participate in abortions.

Here's the problem: A U.S. Senate committee just passed a dangerously deceptive, conscience-threatening amendment to a healthcare reform bill. This is what they did:

• First, the Senate HELP committee voted down good amendments that would have truly protected physicians and nurses from being forced to participate in abortions.
  
  
• Then the committee passed Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy's deceptive amendment #205. This amendment pretends to protect conscience rights but would actually force healthcare professionals to participate in abortions:

1. Physicians and nurses would be forced to actually perform an abortion any time someone labeled the abortion an "emergency.
   
   Of course, "emergency" would include not just medical reasons, but also emotional, financial and virtually any other reason. Nearly every abortion in this way could be called an "emergency."
   
   
2. By requiring an official referral, physicians and nurses would be forced to lead the patient to an abortion clinic or abortion doctor.
   
   
3. The Kennedy amendment gives unqualified freedom and protection to those who perform abortions. But it coerces and harms those who ethically oppose abortion.

What you can do to stop this threat:

Use the Congressional Contacts links below to personally contact your senators' offices. Tell them you are a constituent and (if applicable) a medical professional.

1. Say that you OPPOSE Kennedy conscience amendment #205 to the healthcare bill, recently passed by the Senate HELP Committee.

2. Tell them to KEEP real protections for faith-based and pro-life healthcare professionals--such as the Hyde-Weldon Amendment and the Health and Human Services conscience regulation.

Congressional Contacts:

• Contact my Senator

• Congress and Legislation

Thank you for taking a stand for life!

FOCA by any other name still stinks

The tens of millions of postcards sent to Congress have convinced them that openly advocating passage of FOCA will be highly unpopular. So have they given up? No way! Instead, they have adopted a "FOCA-by-stealth" strategy, by including many of FOCA's provisions in the health care reform package.

Although the Democratic leadership has been coyly insisting that there is no abortion funding / mandate / expansion in the provisions of the bill, the way they vote tells a different story.

As FRC reports:

The Senate HELP Committee continued its markup of the Kennedy healthcare legislation yesterday. Several amendments were offered to protect conscience rights and to prevent funding or mandating of abortion. Sen. Orrin Hatch's (R-Utah) amendment to prevent funding of abortion failed. Sen. Michael Enzi's (R-Wy.) amendment to prevent the healthcare bill from mandating abortion coverage was defeated. Since there is nothing in this legislation to prevent mandating abortion as a covered service, it would be mandated--the Obama Administration health bureaucracy will see to that.

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) also offered several amendments to the Kennedy legislation. His amendment to codify the Hyde/Weldon conscience protection law was defeated. His amendment to prevent the healthcare bill from preempting state laws on abortion was defeated. With the exception of Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), the HELP Democrats voted against it. They opposed preventing this legislation from trumping various state laws, such as parental consent laws. One bright note, Sen. Coburn's amendment to protect healthcare workers' conscience rights with regard to euthanasia passed by a voice vote. The amendment ensures that doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers, including healthcare plans, are not forced to violate their conscience on the issue of euthanasia.

Click here for FRC's in-depth analysis of the HELP Committee votes.

With the exception of Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA), all the Democratics on the HELP committee have refused to vote to protect conscience rights, to prevent funding or mandating of abortion, or to prevent preempting of state laws on abortion. If they are telling the truth and the health bill will not violate conscience, fund or mandate abortion, or preempt pro-life state laws, then why did they refuse to vote to put these statements explicitly in the bill?

Want to do something about it? Here are some suggestions from NRLC.

- Go to the National Right to Life Legislative Action Center, here, and take a few minutes to use the form there to send messages to your two U.S. senators and to your representative in the U.S. House of Representatives, to urge them to oppose any federal "health care reform" legislation that does not explicitly exclude abortion.

- Please TELEPHONE the offices of your two U.S. senators, give your name and address, and tell the senators' staff persons that you wish to be recorded as "opposed to Senator Kennedy's health care bill because it contains many pro-abortion mandates." The offices of any U.S. senator can be reached through 202-224-3121. Also, please TELEPHONE the office of your U.S. House member, give your name and address, and inform the staff person that you wish to be recorded as "opposed to the House Democratic Leadership health care reform bill because it contains many pro-abortion mandates." You can reach any U.S. House member's office through 202-225-3121. You can also find the direct-dial numbers (and fax numbers) for the Washington and in-state offices of your U.S. senators and U.S. House member by calling up their individual profiles on this website, here.

- Send short letters to the "letters to the editor" features of your local newspapers, in order to alert your fellow pro-life citizens to the sweeping pro-abortion mandates that the Obama White House and the pro-abortion lobby are trying to smuggle into law through "health care reform." You can find contact information for your local news media in the "Media Guide" on the NRLC website, here.

Thank Pro-Life Democrats, help them stop taxpayer funding of abortion

First, some good news: a group of Pro-Life Democrats showed their courage in standing up for Life against their party's leadership. Let's show our support for them!

And second, some bad news. Pro-abortion groups are pushing for taxpayer-funded abortions to become part of the health care reform package. Please let your Rep / Senators know that you don't want your tax money used this way.

Details below.

1. From the Susan B Anthony List:

This past week 19 pro-life Democrats, including Pro-Life Women's Caucus member Kathy Dahlkemper (D-PA), sent a letter to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to call for an explicit ban on taxpayer funding for abortion in health care reform legislation.

These pro-life leaders need our support and gratitude. Please write them today and thank them for standing up for the cause of Life, against their own party leadership. ...

Protecting women and the unborn should not be a partisan issue - it's a matter of basic human rights. That's why its so important to support those pro-life leaders who boldly place principle before politics.

2. Meanwhile, LifeNews reports that the pro-abortion groups Planned Parenthood and NARAL are calling on their supporters to demand taxpayer funding of abortion in health care reform. While Cecile Richards of PP uses the code phrase "comprehensive reproductive health services",

NARAL's Nancy Keenan is less deceptive in her own email to her pro-abortion forces.

"Unless we act now, the Senate could ban reproductive-health services from being covered in the new health-care system. Millions of women could lose coverage for abortion," she says. "We need your help to convince senators on the Finance Committee to stand up against this divisive anti-choice attack."

Keenan goes on to say that abortion advocates need to contact the Senate Finance Committee before it takes up the bill next week so abortion and tax-funded abortions remain a possibility under the health care reform bill it is considering.

Pro-life Americans need to do the opposite:

ACTION:
1) Please click here to send an email asking your Congressional delegation to exclude abortion funding from any health care reform bills. (1 minute)

2) Contact members of the Senate Finance Committee and urge strong support for any amendments to stop abortion coverage or taxpayer-funded abortions in the health care plan. Click here for a list of the committee members, then click on the senator's name for a direct office phone number or call 202-224-3121 and ask for the senator by name. (< 5 minutes)

Bishops v. Obama

Our bishops speak out on the newly-elected government. Read it all here.

Bishop Robert Conlon of Steubenville, Ohio agreed. "Some people may think it's time for a truce, but we're dealing with a moral absolute. There's nothing here that allows for common ground. We're talking about a human being whose life cannot be compromised."

Auxiliary Bishop Robert Hermann observed that the bishops should not be afraid of mere criticism for defending Catholic teaching on the sanctity of life, when any of them would be willing to give up their life to end abortion. "Any bishop here would be willing, would consider it a privilege, to die tomorrow if it meant ending abortion,” he said. “We should dedicate the rest of our lives to taking any kind of criticism, whatever it is, to stop this horrible genocide."

Thank you, Lord!! (tears in my eyes) We need to support these good shepherds with our daily prayers and pray also for the weaker among them that the Lord would give them the fortitude, zeal, faithfulness, and wisdom that they need.

And from FRC (related to Focus on the Family), more info on this:

Marching As to War

Facing the most pro-abortion administration in U.S. history, the Catholic Church is mobilizing to respond. In a meeting yesterday, 220 Catholic bishops drafted an official statement, warning Capitol Hill and President-elect Obama that passing the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) would be viewed as a direct attack on religion. Back in July of 2007, Barack Obama announced at a Planned Parenthood banquet that signing FOCA was his first priority: "Well, the first thing I'd do as President is sign the Freedom of Choice Act. ...On this fundamental issue, I will not yield and Planned Parenthood will not yield." With almost full control of Congress, Obama will be expected to live up to his promise as payback for the abortion community's support. If successful, the newly expanded majority would abolish over 300 pro-life laws and restrictions -- even reinstating partial-birth abortion.

Although the Catholic bishops have offered to work with the administration on a number of issues, the defense of life is non-negotiable. "This is not a matter of political compromise," said Bishop Daniel Conlon of Steubenville, Ohio. "It's a matter of absolutes." For some leaders, the church's forceful opposition to FOCA could be the excuse Catholic Democrats need to vote the legislation down.

If not for their conscience, members should be wary of the Bishops' warning for the mere fact that Catholics are a powerful player in the U.S. health care system. As Ed Morrissey points out, Catholics run more than 550 hospitals and 415 clinics in America, spending billions out of pocket to help the disadvantaged get the care they need. Under FOCA, religious providers would have two options: either comply with the abortion mandate or end their services completely. Is Congress so intent on appeasing Planned Parenthood that it would jeopardize the health care of 90 million Americans? We'll see.

Bishops Warn Obama on Abortion

The Catholic League reports:

November 12, 2008

BISHOPS WARN OBAMA ON ABORTION; CATHOLIC LEFT REBUKED
In a statement released today, Francis Cardinal George, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, made it clear that the bishops will fight any expansion of abortion rights that may occur under the next administration. Specifically, the bishops are objecting to the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA), a bill so sweeping and draconian that it would not only repeal every single state restriction on abortion, it would seriously jeopardize the right of Catholic hospitals and doctors to opt out of performing abortions.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue released the following remarks:

"Cardinal George is right to label FOCA 'an evil law that would further divide the country.' At stake are two issues: a) the rights of the unborn and, b) religious liberty.

"First, those who admit that abortion should be rare unwittingly acknowledge that there is a reason to limit its frequency: as Cardinal George said, 'abortion kills.' By contrast, no one maintains that root canals should be rare, and that is because this medical procedure-unlike abortion-does not result in the total denial of someone else's rights.

"Second, religious liberty is enshrined in the First Amendment and cannot be trespassed upon lightly, and certainly not by abortion zealots. Those who support FOCA must realize that if Catholic hospitals are ever required to perform abortions, the bishops will close every one of them; no one would be hurt more than the poor.

"Cardinal George explicitly rejected the 'common good' mantra of the Catholic Left that justifies legal abortion while pursuing ameliorative social policies that may reduce abortions. At stake, he said, is the 'legal protection of the unborn,' something which is rejected by Catholics United, Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good and Catholic Democrats. We hope they amend their ways and fall in line with Catholic thought on this grave matter. If they do not, they will become indistinguishable from Catholics for Choice, a fully discredited organization."

Info from the USCCB on Catholic involvement in healthcare.

• There are 615 Catholic hospitals, which account for 12.5% of community hospitals in the United States, and over 15.5% of all U.S. hospital admissions.
• In addition to hospitals, the Catholic health care network also includes 404 health care centers and 1,509 specialized homes.
• In 20 states, Catholic health care facilities account for more than 20% of admissions.
• Catholic hospitals employ over 598,934 full-time equivalent employees (FTEs).
• In 2005, there were more than 15.4 million emergency room visits and more than 86 million outpatient visits in Catholic hospitals.
• In 2005, the number of Catholic residential homes for children, or orphanages, totaled 235, serving a total of 50,264 young people.

h/t: M.L.