By Kathleen Gilbert
WASHINGTON, D.C., August 3, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – When asked a direct question on whether she favored prohibiting the funding of abortion in the health care bill, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi dodged the question, and echoed President Obama's answer to the fiasco by downplaying the abortion debate.
A reporter at a press conference Friday asked Pelosi to give “a yes-or-no answer” on whether she personally supported “expressly prohibiting the funding of abortion through the federally subsidized health plan created by the health-care reform bill.”
“Well, my position on a women's right to choose is well known,” Pelosi responded.
“This issue, however, will not stand in the way of us advancing the health-care legislation. Again the committees of jurisdiction – in fact, today Energy and Commerce, tomorrow as they work on the bill, may be addressing that issue,” she added.
Pelosi has been one of the leading personalities in the Obama administration's enormous push to get the bill through Congress, on a schedule tightened by the plan's falling approval rates in recent polling data.
The final House committee Friday night passed the bill with an amendment by pro-abortion Democrat Lois Capps that explicitly allows federal funding of abortion coverage, permits taxpayer subsidies of abortion-covering private plans, and mandates that at least one abortion-covering plan be available in every U.S. region. The committee rejected amendments offered by Rep.s Bart Stupak (D-MI) and Joe Pitts (R-PA) to halt the abortion mandate.
The Senate version still awaited approval in the Senate Finance Committee as lawmakers left Capitol Hill this weekend for their month-long summer recess.
President Obama answered similarly to Pelosi when asked by CBS news anchor Katie Couric whether he favored a government option that covered abortions. He replied that concerned individuals should not “micromanage” what benefits are included in the public plan.
“Rather than wade into that issue at this point, I think that it's appropriate for us to figure out how to just deliver on the cost savings, and not get distracted by the abortion debate at this station,” said Obama.
While Democrat leaders continue to dismiss the issue, the abortion lobby has made no secret of their communications with the White House to secure expansion of abortion in heatlh care reform. At July's Planned Parenthood 2009 Organizing and Policy Summit, White House Public Engagement director Tina Tchen personally updated Planned Parenthood on health care reform and reassured them of Obama's commitment to “women's health.”
“Health care reform is moving full steam ahead, and policymakers in Washington need to know the importance of including women's health care as part of a reform package,” said Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards.
The only direct statement Obama has made on the role of abortion in the new health care plan came before he was elected, when in July 2007 he told the Planned Parenthood Action fund that abortion would be “at the center, the heart of” his health care overhaul.
See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Obama: “Let's Not Get Distracted” over Taxpayer-Funded Abortion Coverage in Healthcare
Obama Committed to Women's Health in Health Care Reform: White House Staffer to Planned Parenthood