While the Senate Democratic leadership and the White House may be celebrating Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson’s decision to vote for the health reform bill, the National Right to Life Committee says it will continue to fight for greater restrictions on federal funding for abortions.
Nelson has been a problem for his fellow Democrats in recent days because of his stated desire to ensure the bill would not allow federal dollars to pay for abortions.
The Senate Democrats needed 60 votes to get their bill passed and have been working hard to achieve their goal before Christmas.
After some intense negotiations late Friday, Nelson finally agreed to a compromise.
According to press reports, the changes include further restrictions on abortion coverage in policies sold inside the exchanges.
States would be permitted to ban insurance coverage of abortions in policies sold in the exchange, except in cases of rape, incest or when the life of the mother is in jeopardy. In states where such coverage is permitted, consumers must notify their insurance company they want it, and pay for it separately.
The Nebraskan also won increased federal funds to cover his state’s cost of covering an expanded Medicaid population at a cost that one Democratic official put at $45 million over a decade, and took credit for easing the bill’s impact as well as other, smaller changes.
When he finally announced his decision, Nelson did so at a news conference in a Capitol corridor, rather than from his Senate desk as Democrats had preferred. Noting the bruising negotiations over abortion, he said, “I know this is hard for some of my colleagues to accept and I appreciate their right to disagree. But I would not have voted for this bill without these provisions.”
Senators who support abortion rights accepted the changes reluctantly, but conservative Republicans and the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) criticized them as a step backward from the equivalent part of the House bill.
In a press release on Saturday, the NRLC stated the amendment is “light years removed from the Stupak-Pitts Amendment that was approved by the House of Representatives on November 8 by a bipartisan vote of 240-194. The new abortion language solves none of the fundamental abortion-related problems with the Senate bill, and it actually creates some new abortion-related problems.”
Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., who pushed through the restrictions in the House-passed bill, also rejected Nelson’s deal. He called it “not acceptable” because it “would allow the federal government to subsidize insurance policies with abortion coverage.” He said he intends to keep working to find a solution that would allow him to ultimately vote for the health care bill.
We have been down this road before.
The last time Democrats controlled Congress and the White House was in 1994, during the infancy of Susan B. Anthony List. Bill Clinton was on the verge of pushing through a health care reform bill that would have funded abortions.
Pennsylvania Governor Bob Casey, Sr. was an incredibly popular pro-life Democratic leader at that time. In the Supreme Court battle Casey vs. Planned Parenthood in 1992, he fought for and won a partial victory against Planned Parenthood by making statewide abortion restrictions legal.
This heroic enemy of Planned Parenthood rose up and denounced the Clinton health care bill, serving as a rallying point for pro-life Democratic opposition to the bill in the Senate. The bill was shut down in the Senate and the issue has been dead for 15 years.
Now, almost two decades later, Democrats once again control Congress and the White House. The concerns of the pro-life Democratic Senators have been ignored and the pro-life amendment sponsored by Ben Nelson (D-NE) and Bob Casey, Jr. (D-PA) has been killed.
The Susan B. Anthony List is launching a massive advertisement campaign in Pennsylvania to tell Bob Casey, Jr. that he still has a chance to do the right thing. We are pouring all our reserve funds for the year into his home state in order to fund this campaign.
Watch our advertisement and help us draw a line in the sand.
Over the weekend, Ben Nelson declared that the abortion funding in the bill would force him to join with Republicans in an effort to defeat the bill.
The future of this bill rests in the hands of Bob Casey, Jr. Will he join Ben Nelson and follow in the footsteps of his father? Or will he give in to the Planned Parenthood lobbyists who so hated his father?
It is up to us to give of ourselves so that we can show Bob Casey, Jr. that we believe that he has it in him to fight for the unborn as his father so eloquently did.
Over the weekend, Bob Casey, Jr. maintained his silence. On Monday, he met with Barack Obama to discuss a possible compromise.
If Bob Casey, Sr. was still alive, he would tell his son that, on this issue, there is no compromise. Either you use taxpayer dollars to kill babies or you don’t.
Bob Casey, Jr. can still choose to make his father proud.
Any contribution, however small, will help us tremendously. At this critical point, we must draw a line in the sand. Unborn babies and their mothers need our aid and we simply will not abandon them.
Thank you for making the sacrifices we need to achieve victory in this most important battle.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bBoNDzKzSc
Sunday evening, the U.S. Senate passed into law an omnibus spending bill that uses taxpayer dollars to fund abortions in the District of Columbia. Since the Nelson Amendment that prevented taxpayer funding of abortions has been killed, the Senate Health Care Reform Bill is looking to do this on an even more massive scale nationwide.
Despite the fact that the American people do NOT want our government to pay for abortions with their money, the Senate has caved in to pressure from Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry lobbyists.
The Senate health care reform bill—which is on the verge of being passed into law—would result in a MASSIVE government-funded bailout of the abortion industry and the largest expansion of abortion since Roe v. Wade!
To respond swiftly to this crisis, the 70+ pro-life and pro-family organizations that make up the Stop the Abortion Mandate Coalition are joining together next TUESDAY NIGHT, December 15th on a huge nationwide webcast—and your attendance is crucial:
http://www.StopTheAbortionMandate.com/webcast
Here are the details:
-- WHAT: Stop the Abortion Mandate Urgent Webcast
-- DATE: Tuesday, December 15th
-- Time: 9 PM Eastern, 8 PM Central, 7 PM Mountain, 6 PM
Adult stem cell transplants from bone marrow and cord blood have been used successfully in the past to treat children with sickle cell anemia. In fact, many doctors consider adult stem cells the only “cure” for sickle cell disease. Now, a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine shows that adults can also be successfully treated for sickle cell anemia with adult stem cells. After 30 months, all of the patients are alive, and nine of the ten patients had successful grafts and are considered cured of sickle cell disease. According to Dr. John Tisdale at the National Institutes of Health: “It’s been transforming for these patients. These were the sickest of the sick patients. Some were in the hospital every other week for pain or othe r crises. Today, some have gone back to school and to work. One patient had a baby.”
Other recent adult stem cell successes include re-growing patients’ jaw bones and repairing heart damage. Log on to FRC’s new website to watch the stories of patients successfully treated for sickle cell anemia, spinal cord injury, and scleroderma. The results emphasize that adult stem cells provide the only successful stem cell treatments, and also that much more needs to be done to make resources available for adult stem cells, putting the patients first.
Dexter, MI (LifeNews.com)—After almost a decade of success bringing the pro-life message to Southeast Michigan through the initiative of youth, Pinckney Pro-Life (PPL) is taking its message of hope across the nation under a new name - Impact73.org. “This change in name and logo stems from PPL’s longstanding goal of sharing our message with a wider audience,” PPL Director Kathy Hastings told LifeNews.com. Impact73.org refers to the group’s mission to impact changes in the hearts and minds of Americans in the aftermath of the 1973 court case of Roe v. Wade by empowering youth to build a culture of life. While many pro-life organizations work in the political arena, Impact73.org’s goal is to directly reach the “Roe v. Wade” generation. It is the belief of Impact73.org staff and supporters that it is people under the age of 35 that are going to end abortion. Impact73.org franchises PPL’s three largest projects - Project Lifeboard; LIFEtalks; and participation in the annual March for Life in Washington D.C. Experiencing significant success with these projects, PPL has already been able to duplicate that success in many areas including Nashville, Tennessee where eight Lifeboard billboards have gone up in high-traffic areas. Rachel’s Vineyard, an organization that assists post-abortive men and women, and crisis pregnancy hotlines frequently report that they receive calls from people who have seen the Lifeboards and that these people want help and information.
