-- Part One
of Three
Editor's note. Please
send me your thoughts on this at
daveandrusko@hotmail.com.
Today we
take up a third in a series of TN&Vs intended to provide you with an
overview of what to expect from pro-abortion Sen. Barack Obama and
pro-life Sen. John McCain should they become President.
On Monday,
by way of background, we talked about the ever-tightening race. It
really is a dead-heat.
On Tuesday
we outlined what each has said about the kind of Supreme Court nominee
each would send to the Senate for confirmation as well as their
responses to the Supreme Court decision to uphold the Partial-Birth
Abortion Ban Act. Obama harshly criticized Carhart v. Gonzales,
McCain hailed it.
Today my
associate Liz Townsend reports on what NRLC Federal Legislative Director
Douglas Johnson said at the National Right to Life Convention about the
combined impact of Obama's enthusiastic support for the "Freedom of
Choice Act" (FOCA) and his health care proposals. Hint: lots and lots
more abortions.
Since
1973, pro-lifers have vigorously fought attempts to use federal and
state taxpayer funds for abortion. However, upcoming congressional
health care reform proposals may wipe out any successes and impose
mandatory abortion funding on every state and the federal government,
leading to the deaths of thousands more unborn babies.
Douglas
Johnson, NRLC federal legislative director, clearly articulated the
consequences of certain health care reform proposals during a session at
the 2008 NRL Convention. Focusing on prospective Democratic presidential
nominee Barack Obama's public statements on abortion and health care,
Johnson outlined how Obama's support for the so-called "Freedom of
Choice Act" combined with his view of abortion as a central part of
health care coverage would greatly expand the incidence of abortion in
America.
"[Obama]
is advocating a policy, the predictable and inevitable result of which
would be many more abortions. I'm talking about at least many tens of
thousands more a year, probably ultimately even hundreds of thousands of
additional abortions per year," Johnson said at the July 5 General
Session, "Impending Health Care Reform and the Renewed Threat of Health
Care Rationing and Abortion Funding."
Abortion
funding has always been a central goal of pro-abortionists since Roe v.
Wade, Johnson explained. Pro-lifers have thwarted their efforts since
1976, when the Hyde Amendment banned federal funding of abortions.
However, the 2008 presidential election may mark a crucial turning
point.
The
differences between the prospective candidates could not be clearer.
Sen. John McCain has always voted in support of the Hyde Amendment and
other laws that prohibit taxpayer funding for abortion. On the other
side, "Barack Obama as a state senator voted in favor of tax-funded
abortion and he's called publicly for the repeal of the federal Hyde
Amendment," Johnson said. "He has co-sponsored the so-called 'Freedom of
Choice Act' [FOCA], which is a proposed federal law that would
invalidate virtually all federal and state limitations on abortion and
which would explicitly prohibit any level of government from
discriminating against abortion in the provision of any type of
services."
Furthermore, Obama's health care platform hinges on universal health
care, which would require all Americans to be covered by private
insurance or government-provided coverage. However, under Obama's plan,
even private insurance plans would have to follow federal government
mandates.
Obama made
it clear in a July 2007 speech to the Planned Parenthood Action Fund
that abortion (euphemistically known as "reproductive care") is, to him,
a major part of health care. Johnson quoted him as saying, "in my mind,
reproductive health care is essential care, basic care so it is at the
center, the heart of the plan that I propose."
Obama
continued by explaining that while people could choose to keep their
private health care plans, "insurers are going to have to abide by the
same rules in terms of providing comprehensive care, including
reproductive care ... that's going to be absolutely vital." This means
that any health plan or law that attempts to restrict abortion in any
form would be nullified, Johnson explained.
The Hyde
Amendment and state laws against taxpayer funding would be struck down.
In addition, "parental notification and consent laws would be
invalidated," according to Johnson. "Laws requiring waiting periods,
laws requiring that women be allowed to view their ultrasounds--all of
these things would be deemed to be state restrictions on a federally
guaranteed benefit and would be struck down by the federal courts and
deemed inconsistent with federal statute and regulation."
An Obama health care plan
would also likely include a provision requiring services to be available
in each part of every state. Since currently many areas have no resident
abortionists, more would need to be hired to provide the newly mandated
"service."
"By force
of federal law," Johnson said, "you would have to have mainstream health
care providers enlisting, training abortionists in hundreds of
communities where they don't now operate, and/or you would have to have
the establishment of new free-standing abortion clinics, for example,
Planned Parenthood clinics, in hundreds of communities, a major part of
the income of which would be these new federal subsidies for abortion on
demand."
The results of Obama's
policies--and other similar health care reform plans that may be
introduced in Congress--would be disastrous for unborn babies. "If they
succeed, it will very substantially increase the number of abortions
performed in the United States," Johnson said. "It would mean a vast
expansion of the availability of abortion on demand and a lot more
abortions. We need to keep very much in mind as we review these
different plans."
