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White House Claim: Obama Made Same Abortion Pledge to Both Pope and Planned Parenthood

Mayo clinic slams Obama healthcare plan

By Kathleen Gilbert

WASHINGTON, D.C., July 21, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In an exchange with the Cybercast News Service (CNS) concerning the President's healthcare bill, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that Obama's promise to the Pope to reduce abortions was the same promise he made to Planned Parenthood in a July 2007 speech. 

"I have two questions on health care," the CNS reporter asked Gibbs. "One, going back to the President's visit to the Vatican, he reportedly told the Pope that he would work to and do all he could to reduce the number of abortions -"

At which point Gibbs interjected, "I think he said -- he said that in a speech to Planned Parenthood in 2007, so yes."

Earlier this month, President Obama pledged to Pope Benedict XVI "his commitment to reducing the numbers of abortions and to listen to the Church's concern on moral issues," according to Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi, S.J.

In a well-known speech delivered to Planned Parenthood Action Fund on July 17, 2007, then-Senator Obama proclaimed that "we need to tackle the tragedy of unintended teen pregnancy," but offered contraception and explicit sex education as the solution. The reduction of abortion was not mentioned at any point.

In the same speech, however, Obama did describe abortion as "at the center, the heart of" his proposed healthcare overhaul, and said that his election was "not just about playing defense, it's also about playing offense" in the expansion of abortion. In a question-and-answer after the speech, Obama made his infamous pledge to sign FOCA as his first act as President. FOCA is a piece of legislation that would eradicate all restrictions on abortion passed by individual states since Roe v. Wade, including revoking all conscience rights for physicians.

CNS also asked Gibbs if reducing abortions would not include passing the Hatch Amendment that would prohibit federal funds from going to abortion in Obama's proposed health care plan. Studies have shown that making abortion publicly funded significantly increases the number of abortions that are committed.

Gibbs responded, however, that Obama would be leaving the question of whether or not to fund abortion in the plan up to  "experts."

Said Gibbs: "Well, I have not seen the Hatch amendment. I know the President believes that current policy -- certainly current policy for Medicaid prohibits federal funding for abortions. That's the Hyde amendment. I think when it comes to designing a benefit package, I think the President and this administration agree that that's -- a benefit package is better left to experts in the medical field to determine how best and what procedures to cover."

The legislation currently under consideration calls for a 25-member "Health Benefits Advisory Committee" to construct the government's basic health insurance package.  The committee members would be appointed by Obama and the strongly pro-abortion Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. 

An amendment offered by Sen. Orrin Hatch to prohibit the taxpayer-funded plan from covering abortion was rejected by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee earlier this month.

Meanwhile, Obama's healthcare plan continues to meet stiff opposition on other fronts.  The Mayo Clinic, the Minnesota-based medical group hailed as a leader in medical practice and research around the world, strongly criticized the plan, saying the House version of the bill would only make America's healthcare problems worse.

"Although there are some positive provisions in the current House Tri-Committee bill - including insurance for all and payment reform demonstration projects - the proposed legislation misses the opportunity to help create higher-quality, more affordable health care for patients," stated a Mayo Clinic Health Policy blog entry entitled "Mayo Clinic's reaction to the House Tri-Committee Bill" July 16. 

"In fact, it will do the opposite."

The clinic explained that the healthcare bill provisions in general "are not patient focused or results oriented."  "Lawmakers have failed to use a fundamental lever - a change in Medicare payment policy - to help drive necessary improvements in American health care.

"Unless legislators create payment systems that pay for good patient results at reasonable costs, the promise of transformation in American health care will wither. The real losers will be the citizens of the United States."

Only weeks earlier, President Obama had cited the Mayo Clinic as an example of the high-quality, low-cost healthcare that the government-run healthcare would purportedly emulate.

Pro-life leaders are urging citizens to attend a Thursday webcast at 9 p.m. EST addressing the dangers of the healthcare bill's hidden abortion mandate, which is increasingly becoming known as the "silent FOCA." 

See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

White House Refuses to Rule out Taxpayer Funding for Abortion in Health Care Bill
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jul/09072004.html

The Silent FOCA: Vast Abortion Expansion Slowly Coming to Light in Healthcare Package
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jul/09071409.html

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