For
immediate release:
For
further information:
National Right to Life Committee
(NRLC)
Federal Legislation Department,
202-626-8820
Communications Department,
202-626-8825
NATIONAL
RIGHT TO
U.S.
HOUSE TO VOTE WITHIN DAYS ON WHETHER TO MAKE PRO-ABORTION SENATE HEALTH
WASHINGTON -- In a
significant development this week, House
Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) made it clear that the House Democratic
Leadership will force a vote soon on the Senate-passed health bill (H.R. 3590),
including multiple abortion-related provisions strongly opposed by the National
Right to Life Committee (NRLC) and other pro-life organizations, and will not
include pro-life language in any followup legislation.
In addition, House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi (D-Ca.) intends to go forward on the basis, reportedly articulated by
the Senate parliamentarian, that H.R. 3590 must be enacted into law before the
Senate can consider any followup bill under fast-track
"reconciliation" procedures. The Washington Post reported (March 13), "Pelosi shrugged off the ruling, accepting
that the Senate bill would have to move first, and independently. 'It
isn't going to make any difference except maybe in the mood that people are
in,' she said Friday. 'The fact is that once we pass it [H.R. 3590] in the
House, it's going to be the law of the land."
House members have received a
March 5 memorandum from NRLC, posted here,
which summarizes NRLC substantive objections to multiple provisions of the
Senate bill, and sketches the political implications of the upcoming roll
call. NRLC said in part: "When all of the pro-abortion
provisions are considered in total, the Senate bill is the most pro-abortion
single piece of legislation that has ever come to the House floor for a vote,
since Roe v. Wade. Any House member who votes for the Senate health bill is casting a
career-defining pro-abortion vote. A House member who votes for the
Senate bill would forfeit a plausible claim to pro-life credentials. No
House member who votes for the Senate bill will be regarded, in the future, as
having a record against federal funding of abortion. All of those
statements are true regardless of how many assurances or denials are
disseminated by President Obama or by Speaker Pelosi, both of whom have sought
throughout their political careers to undermine limits on government funding of
abortion. House members who vote for the Senate bill will be accountable
to their constituents for what the Senate bill contains."
On March 6, the U.S. Conference
of Catholic Bishops disseminated to congressional offices a
four-page memorandum titled, "What's Wrong With
the Senate Health Care Bill on Abortion? A Response to
Professor Jost." This memorandum is a concise and cogent
rebuttal to one recent tendentious attempt to minimize the multiple ways in
which the Senate bill departs, in the pro-abortion direction, from the
principles of current law and from the substance of the abortion-related
provisions adopted by the House last year (especially the Stupak-Pitts
Amendment). The memo explains how provisions of the Senate
bill would result in direct federal funding of elective abortions, federal
subsidies for plans that cover elective abortions (including some federally
administered plans), and authority for federal officials to mandate
inclusion of abortion coverage in private plans. It also notes that the
Senate bill lacks the vital abortion nondiscrimination language (the
so-called "Weldon" provision) found in the House-passed health
bill. The USCCB memo is posted here.
On March 11, the public policy
arm of the Southern Baptist Convention issued a
national alert, urging citizens to contact their representatives in the
House to urge the defeat of the Senate bill.
The results of polls conducted very recently in 12 congressional
districts by the polling companyTM, inc./WomanTrend,
dealing with the abortion-related aspects of the health care debate, are
posted here.
Additional resources on the
abortion-related controversies surrounding H.R. 3590 are posted on the NRLC
website here.
NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson and Senior Legislative
Counsel Susan Muskett are available to discuss these issues with bona fide
journalists. Please contact the NRLC Communications Department at (202)
626-8825 or the Federal Legislation Department at (202) 626-8820 to
arrange an interview.
# # #
Post
Office Box 110765 ♦
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