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Email: "Pelosi: I’ve Spoken with Bishops, There’s no Abortion Funding in Health Bill"

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USCCB expresses bewilderment BY LifeSiteNews.com By Kathleen GilbertWASHINGTON, DC, March 2, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In a press conference Friday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi attempted to dispel the notion that the Democrats' health care bill contains government abortion funding by appealing to the Hyde amendment – the amendment which has traditionally put up a wall against federal abortion funding."I talked to the Catholic bishops about this, and people on all sides of the choice issue," Pelosi told reporters when asked about abortion funding.  "Federal law prevents federal funding of abortion, there is no federal funding of abortion in this bill. "There'll be no expansion or diminution of a woman's right to choose, and that does not happen in this bill.  And we're determined that we're going to pass health care reform. This bill that passed the Senate does not have federal funding of abortion."However, the argument that the Hyde amendment would prevent government funding of abortion in health care, advanced by the White House earlier last year, has been blasted by commentators and fact-checkers, including the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), as patently false.After Pelosi's press conference, the USCCB's Richard Doerflinger told CNSNews.com that “anyone” who has talked with the bishops knows that the Senate bill allows the use of taxpayer money to purchase abortion-covering health plans.  “We do not know how anyone who has spoken to the bishops could conclude that the Senate health care bill does not fund abortions,” said Doerflinger. “As the bishops have said in their letters to Congress, abortion problems in the Senate bill are so serious that, despite our strong support for expanding access to health care, we will have to oppose the bill unless they are resolved."The Senate health care bill, as repeatedly emphasized by the NRLC, directs government funds to abortion in a number of ways. One aspect the NRLC emphasized in a memorandum this month is that language added to the Senate bill in the 11th-hour manager's amendment last December would "allow direct federal funding of abortion, without restriction, in about 1,250 Community Health Centers." "Buried deep in the Manager’s Amendment was new language making a direct appropriation of funds for Community Health Centers (CHCs) (which are also called Federally Qualified Health Centers, or FQHCs), totaling $7 billion ($7,000,000,000) over five years," wrote the NRLC, referencing Sec. 10503 on page 2355 of H.R. 3590. "Because this is a direct appropriation in the health care bill itself, these funds will not flow through the annual appropriations bill for the Department of Health and Human Services. Therefore, these funds would not be covered by the Hyde Amendment," said the group.The Senate bill forms the basis for the proposals presented by President Obama last month, proposals that NRLC said only make matters worse. "None of President Obama's proposed changes diminish any of the sweeping pro-abortion problems in the Senate bill, and he actually proposes to increase the funds that would be available to directly subsidize abortion procedures (through Community Health Centers) and to subsidize private health insurance that covers abortion (through the premium-subsidy tax credits program)," said NRLC. (Click here for more information from the NRLC on the senate bill's abortion provisions.) See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:Hiding Behind Hyde: More "Deception" and "Smokescreens" from the White House on Abortionhttp://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/oct/09100808.html http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/pelosi-ive-spoken-with-bishops-theres-no-abortion-funding-in-health-bill/

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