News

WASHINGTON, D.C., January 27, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Following its success in the U.S. House last week, a bill to repeal the abortion-expanding health care reform law has been introduced by a leading pro-life lawmaker in the Senate.

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U.S. Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina) introduced the repeal bill on Wednesday, joined by 35 co-sponsors.

“Republicans are standing with the American people who are demanding we repeal this government takeover of health care,” said Senator DeMint in a statement. “Repealing ObamaCare is vital to the future of our nation and the health of our people.

“ObamaCare will raise health costs, reduce choices, ration care, hike taxes, cut jobs, increase the national debt, and put bureaucrats between patients and their doctors.”

While the repeal’s success in the House was widely expected, a similar outcome in the Senate, which remains dominated by the Democratic party, will be far more difficult. The GOP nonetheless hailed the House victory as sending a strong message to President Obama of the bill’s deep unpopularity.

A survey released Tuesday by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 43 percent of U.S. adults favor repealing the health care bill. Among Americans eligible to vote, a Rasmussen Reports survey released Monday found 55 percent favoring repeal, and only 40 percent opposing. Voters polled by Rasmussen have never dipped below 50 percent supporting repeal.

“Economists have described ObamaCare as ‘fiscally dangerous,’ warning it will create barriers to job growth and increase costs at a time of great economic uncertainty,” said Senator DeMint. “American families and businesses are struggling and it’s our duty to respond quickly to their calls to repeal this bill and push for solutions that will make health care more affordable.”

President Obama signed the bill into law in March after mounting a monumental effort to break the resistance of a small group of pro-life Democrats who blocked passage based on the bill’s abortion funding. The White House overcame the obstacle just prior to the final vote by issuing an Executive Order applying Hyde-like restrictions for the bill that was blasted by pro-life experts as woefully inadequate.

Rep. Dan Lipinski of Illinois, one of a small group of House Democrats who opposed the final bill, said this weekend that, although it was “extremely difficult” to contradict the party bosses, there was “never any question” that he would support the bill with its embedded taxpayer funding of abortion.