Monday, September 14, 2009

White House Will Meet With Skeptical Pro-Life Leader on Abortion, Health Care

From http://lifenews.com/nat5460.html

White House Will Meet With Skeptical Pro-Life Leader on Abortion, Health Care

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
September 14, 2009

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Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- White House officials this week will meet with a pro-life leader to discuss the problems of abortion funding in the health care bills pending in Congress. Americans United for Life president Charmaine Yoest will meet with pro-abortion Obama administration officials, but she doesn't expect significant results.
Yoest told LifeNews.com that she hopes to "take the message to the White House that real health care respects life," when she meets Thursday afternoon.

"Abortion is not health care, but without an explicit, proactive exclusion of abortion, the courts will impose an abortion mandate just as they did with Medicaid," she explains.
"The abortion lobby is using health care reform to try to end-run around the Hyde Amendment which has been a thorn in their side. Their ultimate objective is to define abortion as basic health care which Americans do not support," Yoest adds.
The AUL president plans to deliver signatures on a petition the group has been running along with a coalition of pro-life organizations (including LifeNews.com). She will also bring up the status of conscience protection and the denial of care of the elderly.
Domestic Policy Council Director Melody Barnes and White House Director for Public Liaison Tina Tchen, both of whom are strong abortion advocates, will meet with Yoest.
Yoest's group is apparently skeptical of getting much in the way of concessions from the White House on stopping the massive abortion funding that is contained in the House and Senate health care "reform" bills.

In an email to AUL members on Friday, the organization says President Obama's claim in his health care speech last Wednesday that he doesn't want taxpayer-funding of abortions in the final bill is disingenuous.
"Wednesday night, before a joint session of Congress and tens of millions of TV viewers and radio listeners, President Obama repeated his claim that, under his health care reform agenda, 'no federal dollars will be used to fund abortion,'" the email says. "But, in fact, he is throwing his support behind legislation that will equate abortion with basic health care."
AUL Action Staff Counsel Mary Harned said afterwards, "No matter how President Obama and Congress change the structure of the health care reform proposals — whether there is a public option, co-op, exchange, or the like — any legislation that provides government funding for health care must contain explicit language that excludes abortion."
In the email, Yoest talked more about her upcoming meeting.

"I will have the opportunity to relay your concerns about health care reform directly to the White House in less than a week," she says.
"One of our most powerful means to show the President the strength and dedication of pro-life Americans is our Keep Abortion Out of Health Care petition, which I will personally deliver at that September 17 meeting," she adds. "That’s why, if you haven't already done so, I urgently ask you to join your name to the thousands who have already signed the petition."v

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