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Press Release
Senate
Finance Committee Rejects Amendments To Prevent Abortion
Funding & Protect Conscience Rights.
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Rejection of amendment shows abortion funding/subsidies
are in bills.
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Subsidizing abortion is drastic break with longstanding
federal policy.
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Undermines Obama’s declaration that abortion not funded
in health care reform.
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Shows Harry Reid is wrong to tell town hall meeting that
abortion is not covered.
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Senate bill will contain pro-abortion federal mandates
and funding.
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 30, 2009
Contact
Don Nelson, Nevada LIFE, 775-530-0029
The following statement can
be attributed to Nevada LIFE President Don Nelson:
Today’s
rejection of an amendment to prohibit federal funds from
“being used for elective abortions and plans that cover
such abortions" shows that health care bills under
consideration fund abortion.
The
amendment, brought by Senator Orin Hatch, would have
allowed insurers to sell abortion coverage through
separate supplemental policies not subsidized by federal
funds. Federal subsidies for coverage of elective
abortions are not currently allowed under Medicaid, the
Federal Employees Health Benefits program, or other
federal health programs. Failure to prevent funding
“for elective abortions and plans that cover them”
would be a drastic departure with longstanding federal
policy.
The
rejection of this amendment further validates various
media reports that government funding of abortion is in
the bill.
The AP says "health overhaul would create a stream of
federal funding not covered by the [Hyde] restrictions.
FactCheck.org says, "Despite what Obama said, the
House bill would allow abortions to be covered by a
federal plan and by federally subsidized private plans."
Today’s
actions undermine President Obama’s stern declaration that
abortion would not be funded or subsidized by health care
reform. It also shows that Nevada Senator Harry Reid is
absolutely wrong when he promised listeners of his August
28, 2009 telephone town hall meeting that “The cost of
such coverage would be exclusively paid by premiums, not
by public subsidies.”
The same
committee voted against another Hatch amendment codifying
conscience protections for health care workers who oppose
abortion. This
amendment would have codified the Hyde-Weldon Amendment-a
temporary law prohibiting any level of government from
discriminating against health-care providers who do not
wish to participate in providing abortions.
These
actions, along with the Senate Health, Education, Labor,
and Pensions Committee’s approval of a different health
care bill (S. 1679) that contains provisions that would
result in sweeping pro-abortion mandates and government
subsidies for elective abortion, mean the combined Senate
bill will contain provisions that would create
pro-abortion federal mandates and huge federal abortion
subsidies.
Abortion is
not healthcare. A health care system designed to save
lives must not become a vehicle for taking lives through
abortion.
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