From nc-pro-life at pairlist.net Thu Nov 5 15:59:51 2009 From: nc-pro-life at pairlist.net (North Carolina Pro-Life Email List) Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 15:59:51 -0500 Subject: [NC Life Alert] Latest Pro-Abortion Ploy Message-ID: <20091105205948.403224442E8@smtp.ftc-i.net> Please forward to any pro-life lists. To take immediate action on this urgent matter, click here . For additional information: National Right to Life Committee Federal Legislation Department 202-626-8820 http://www.nrlc.org/ahc National Right to Life Statement on latest pro-abortion ploy by U.S. House Democratic Leadership WASHINGTON (November 4, 2009, 7 PM EST) The House Democratic leadership today announced that it will propose a "Rule" on the health care bill, H.R. 3962, that will insert language proposed by Rep. Brad Ellsworth (D-In.), and exclude a House vote on an amendment proposed by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mi.). The House is expected to vote on the "rule" late Friday or early Saturday. The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of right-to-life organizations in all 50 states, supports the Stupak Amendment and opposes the pro-abortion Ellsworth-Waxman-Pelosi language. NRLC issued the following statement, which may be attributed to NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson. "Any House member who votes for the Pelosi rule is voting to establish a federal government insurance plan, the public option, that the bill explicitly authorizes to pay for all elective abortions. When a federal agency pays for abortions, that is federal funding of abortion in reality, whatever contrived labels Speaker Pelosi or her acolytes slap over it. The Ellsworth language is a political fig leaf made out of cellophane -- it directs the federal Secretary of Health to hire a contractor to deliver to abortion providers the payments for elective abortions, payments that are explicitly authorized by the bill [on page 110]. This is a money-laundering scheme -- a federally funded 'bag man' will deliver government funds to abortionists. This is federal funding of elective abortion." NRLC's objections to the abortion-related provisions of H.R. 3962 are explained in detail in a letter sent to House members on November 2, posted here (or in PDF format, here ). Additional documentation is posted at http://www.nrlc.org/ahc ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Please help us by forwarding this email on to your friends and family that may not be on this alert list. To Subscribe to our mailing list click: http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/nc-pro-life To Unsubscribe: You may unsubscribe from our mailing list at any time by emailing ncrtl73 at aol.com. or write to NCRTL, PO BOX 9282, Greensboro, NC 27429-0282 Visit our website at http://www.ncrtl.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 2845 bytes Desc: not available Url : -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 5675 bytes Desc: not available Url : From nc-pro-life at pairlist.net Sun Nov 8 07:53:26 2009 From: nc-pro-life at pairlist.net (North Carolina Pro-Life Email List) Date: Sun, 8 Nov 2009 07:53:26 -0500 Subject: [NC Life Alert] NRLC urges House to adopt Stupak-Pitts Amendment Message-ID: <20091108125318.B6AC063915C@smtp.ftc-i.net> What follows is a letter from the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) to Members of the U.S. House of Representatives, sent on Saturday, November 7, 2009, at Noon EST. To take immediate action in support of the Stupak-Pitts pro-life amendment, click here. RE: NRLC scorecard advisory: H.R. 3962, the Stupak-Pitts Amendment, abortion, and the "public option" Dear Member of Congress: On behalf of the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), we are writing to urge you to support the Stupak-Pitts Amendment to the "Affordable Health Care for America Act," H.R. 3962, that was introduced on October 29. H.R. 3962 would create (1) a nationwide insurance program run directly by the federal government, "the public plan," and (2) an "affordability credit" program that would subsidize health insurance for tens of millions of Americans. These two new government programs will subsidize elective abortion - a drastic break from decades of federal policy -- unless the Stupak-Pitts Amendment is added to the bill to prevent this outcome. As NRLC's congressional scorecard for the 111th Congress will clearly explain, a vote against the Stupak-Pitts Amendment can only be construed as a position-defining vote in favor of establishing a federal government program that will directly fund abortion on demand, with federal funds, and a second federal program that will provide government subsidies to private insurance plans that cover abortion on demand. NRLC regards this as the most important House roll call on federal funding of abortion since the House last voted directly on the Hyde Amendment in 1997. If you do not wish to go on record in support of creating major new federal programs that will both fund abortions directly and subsidize private abortion coverage, please vote for the Stupak-Pitts Amendment. NRLC will regard a "present" vote as equivalent to a negative vote on the Stupak-Pitts Amendment. The Capps-Waxman language, which was added to H.R. 3962 in the House Energy and Commerce Committee despite the objections of pro-life members of both parties, has been falsely "marketed" as consistent with the principles of the Hyde Amendment. In reality, the Capps-Waxman language would explicitly authorize exactly the things that the Hyde Amendment prohibits in the existing Medicaid program: direct government funding of elective abortion, and government subsidies for plans that cover elective abortion. Allow us to address first the "public option": Language on page 110 of H.R. 3962 (lines 1-7) explicitly says that "nothing in this Act shall be construed as preventing the public health insurance option from providing for . . . coverage of services described in paragraph (4)(A)." The "services described in paragraph (4)(A)" are elective abortions (i.e., all abortions, abortions without any limitations whatever). You may have read in news stories or elsewhere that language has been included in H.R. 3962 that would "segregate" federal funds away from the payments for abortions. Those references are completely inapplicable or nonsensical with respect to the "public option." It is utterly impossible to "segregate" federal funds away from abortion within the "public option," because the "public option" will be a federal agency program that can spend only federal funds (like Medicare). Others may have directed your attention to page 246 of H.R. 3962, which contains a paragraph caption that reads, "Prohibition of Use of Public Funds for Abortion Coverage." Do not be fooled. A paragraph caption has no legal effect whatever. The operative bill language that immediately follows the paragraph caption states simply, "An affordability credit may not be used for payment for services described in section 222(d)(4)(A)" [i.e., elective abortions]. But an "affordability credit" is only one type of federal funding. The language on page 246 does not restrict the use of all other types of federal funds to pay directly for elective abortions -- and the use of other types of federal funds is explicitly authorized by the "nothing in this Act shall be construed" clause on page 110. In particular, the so-called "premiums" that will be collected by the government from citizens who enroll in the "public option" will become federal funds when the government assumes control of them (as the Congressional Research Service has confirmed in a memorandum dated October 9, 2009). Thus, under H.R. 3962, the public plan would be engaged in direct funding of elective abortion, using federal funds. The federal program would pay abortionists for performing elective abortions. (It is, of course, entirely irrelevant whether or not the federal agency hires contractors to help process the paperwork, as also occurs under Medicare.) It is untenable to claim, as some have, that this federal program would pay for abortions with "private" funds. The public plan is the federal government, and if it pays for abortions, it is federal funding of abortion. We turn now to the second abortion-related problem in the bill: the new premium-subsidy program ("affordability credits"). The Capps-Waxman language in the bill explicitly authorizes federal subsidies to pay the premiums of private health plans that cover elective abortions. This, too, would be a break with the policy established under longstanding federal laws, under which federal funds do not flow to health plans that pay for elective abortions. For example, the 260 private plans that participate in the Federal Employees' Health Benefits program are prohibited by law from including elective abortion coverage, because they are federally subsidized. Likewise, in Medicaid, current law prohibits not only direct federal funding of abortion but also federal funding of any fund that pays for abortions - and this ban covers even state matching funds. Thank you for your consideration of the position of National Right to Life on this critical matter, which we convey on behalf of our affiliates in all 50 states. Sincerely, Douglas Johnson Legislative Director National Right to Life Committee Susan T. Muskett, J.D. Senior Legislative Counsel National Right to Life Committee 202-626-8820 http://www.nrlc.org/ahc ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Please help us by forwarding this email on to your friends and family that may not be on this alert list. To Subscribe to our mailing list click: http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/nc-pro-life To Unsubscribe: You may unsubscribe from our mailing list at any time by emailing ncrtl73 at aol.com. or write to NCRTL, PO BOX 9282, Greensboro, NC 27429-0282 Visit our website at http://www.ncrtl.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 5675 bytes Desc: not available Url : -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 2845 bytes Desc: not available Url : From nc-pro-life at pairlist.net Sun Nov 8 09:49:07 2009 From: nc-pro-life at pairlist.net (North Carolina Pro-Life Email List) Date: Sun, 8 Nov 2009 09:49:07 -0500 Subject: [NC Life Alert] Follow-up - NRLC: House rejects pro-abortion smuggling effort Message-ID: <20091108144859.67D0978215@smtp.ftc-i.net> National Right to Life Says House Abortion Vote "Disrupts the Obama Administration's Pro-Abortion Smuggling Operation," But Further Battles Ahead WASHINGTON (November 7, 2009) -- The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of right-to-life organizations in the 50 states, issued the following statement regarding today's actions in the House of Representatives on the health care restructuring legislation, H.R. 3962. The House adopted the NRLC-backed Stupak-Pitts Amendment, 240-194. The Stupak-Pitts Amendment removed two major pro-abortion components from H.R. 3962. Specifically: (1) the amendment would permanently prohibit the new federal government insurance program, the "public option," from paying for abortion, except to save the life of the mother, or in cases of rape or incest; and (2) the amendment would permanently prohibit the use of the new federal premium subsidies ("affordability credits") to purchase private insurance plans that cover abortion (except to save the life of the mother, or in cases of rape or incest). The amendment was sponsored by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mi.) and Joe Pitts (R-Pa.). It was supported by 176 Republicans and 64 Democrats. It was opposed by 194 Democrats. One Republican withheld his support by voting "present." NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson said: "The Obama White House and top congressional Democratic leaders spent months concealing and misrepresenting provisions that would directly fund abortions through a government plan, and subsidize premiums for private abortion plans. Today's bipartisan House vote is a sharp blow to the White House's pro-abortion smuggling operation. But we know that the White House and pro-abortion congressional Democratic leaders will keep trying to enact government funding of abortion, and will keep trying to conceal their true intentions, so there is a long battle ahead." The Associated Press reported, "Abortion rights advocates called the measure the biggest setback to women's reproductive rights in decades." In addition to working hard to remove abortion subsidies from the bill, NRLC has sought to educate lawmakers and the public about components of H.R. 3962 that could result in rationing or discriminatory denial of lifesaving medical care. A letter sent by NRLC to the House late today, summarizing objectionable elements of the amended bill, is posted here . The letter states: "We will continue to work to correct provisions that we find objectionable in this area, both in the health care legislation that will come before the Senate, and in any conference committee on health care legislation. We reserve the right to score the roll call vote on the conference report, or on any Senate-passed bill, if these concerns are not adequately resolved." An archive of NRLC letters to Congress and other documents regarding the abortion-related components of the legislation are posted here . ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Please help us by forwarding this email on to your friends and family that may not be on this alert list. To Subscribe to our mailing list click: http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/nc-pro-life To Unsubscribe: You may unsubscribe from our mailing list at any time by emailing ncrtl73 at aol.com. or write to NCRTL, PO BOX 9282, Greensboro, NC 27429-0282 Visit our website at http://www.ncrtl.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 5675 bytes Desc: not available Url : -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 2845 bytes Desc: not available Url :