By Kathleen Gilbert
WASHINGTON, D.C., September 18, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Despite the Obama administration's repeated dismissal of the controversy over abortion funding in the health care reform bill, a confrontation between White House officials and Americans United for Life (AUL) Thursday revealed what pro-life leaders have been warning all along: that the White House is unlikely to put its money where its mouth is and support language in the bill that would explicitly prevent taxpayer funds from going to abortion and abortion providers.
Consonant with the warnings of pro-life forces, the outcome of the meeting helped clarify the extent of President Obama's commitment to supporting the stated health care interests of the abortion lobby. Organizations such as Planned Parenthood and NARAL have called repeatedly for the “right” of abortion to be broadly expanded through the bill.
President Obama has in recent weeks been attempting to allay concerns about abortion and his health care plans, calling it a “fabrication” that the bill would use taxpayer funds to pay for abortions. However, pro-life organizations such as the Family Research Council and the National Right to Life Committee have pointed to language in the current form of the House bill explicitly calling for abortion coverage in the public plan, as well as taxpayer subsidies for insurance plans that cover abortions. The analysis of these groups has been backed up by other non-pro-life groups, including the Associated Press and the non-partisan FactCheck.org.
More recently, Obama claimed in a Sept. 9 address to a joint session of Congress that “no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions, and federal conscience laws will remain in place.”
AUL president and CEO Charmaine Yoest met with senior White House officials Melody Barnes and Tina Tchen after Dr. Yoest called on the White House to clarify President Obama's recent statement of support for keeping abortion funding out of health care reform.
After the meeting, Dr. Yoest stated that the White House remained noncommittal on explicit language excluding abortion from the health care bill.
“We remain deeply concerned about abortion funding and the abortion mandate in health care reform,” said Yoest in a statement Thursday. “Ms. Barnes reiterated the President's statement about opposing abortion funding in his address before Congress last week but the White House would not commit to language that explicitly excludes abortion from health care reform.”
Dr. Yoest provided the White House with a brief from the Americans United for Life legal team that documents why anything less than an explicit ban on abortion funding and coverage will ultimately allow government-funded abortion.
The AUL president also delivered a petition with over 39,000 signatures from pro-life Americans telling President Obama to veto any bill that does not specifically forbid mandating insurance companies to cover abortion. The petition also urges the President to veto any bill that could make taxpayers responsible for directly or indirectly paying for abortion.
“The reality on the Hill right now is that the health care bills do include abortion funding,” Yoest continued. “Without a specific statutory amendment that includes an explicit ban on federal funding and coverage, taxpayers will be paying for abortion.”
White House Public Engagement director Tina Tchen, with whom Yoest met last night, in July personally updated a gathering of Planned Parenthood staff of president Obama's plans for health care and assured them of his commitment to “women's health.”
On August 12, Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards gushed over her organization's close relationship with the White House on the issue of health care reform following a private meeting. “Just left the White House meeting on women's health care – they appreciate all the mighty PP supporters speaking up for reform in the states!” said Richards on Facebook and Twitter.
As pointed out in a fact check of Obama's statements to Congress published by House Minority Leader John Boehner September 10, Obama made no secret of his commitment to expanding abortion through health care prior to his ascension to the presidency.
During the Q&A session of a 2007 speech to Planned Parenthood, then-senator Obama said that abortion was “essential” care that would be “at the heart, and at the center of” his plan for health care reform.
“President Obama has never retracted this vow, and the health care reform bill moving through the House would help him make good on it if enacted into law,” said Boehner.
See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Planned Parenthood Continues Boasting Close Ties with White House on Obamacare Bill
Obama Calls Abortion Funding in Healthcare Legislation a “Fabrication”
AP Confirms Health Bill Radically Opens Federal Funds to Abortion