By Dave Andrusko

Part Two is a thorough critique of the pro-abortion components of the Senate Health "reform" bill made worse by President Obama's proposed changes offered today. Part Three lay outs the rationing components of the same measure. If you would like to comment on any of the three parts, please write to daveandrusko@gmail.com. If you'd like, follow me on http://twitter.com/daveha.

It is ironically fitting that Tim Burton's bizarre take on "Alice in Wonderland" will be soon hitting movie screens. Anticipation prompts us to recall some of the many famous lines from Lewis Carroll's works, including from "Through the Looking Glass" (the sequel to "Alice in Wonderful"). There we recollect a line that fits what has emerged from a pro-abortion President and a pro-abortion congressional leadership to a "T."

"'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said in a rather scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less.'"

Part Two is a thorough analysis with regard to abortion of the Senate Health Bill (with President Obama's enhancements) by NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson. The gist is summarized in the headline: "Senate Health Bill Would Become Even More Expansively Pro-Abortion if Modified by New Obama Proposals." (See http://stoptheabortionagenda.com)

But you simply would never, never come to that conclusion if you read most stories that appeared prior to this morning's posting on the White House website or those which have cropped up online since. Since Part Two is so inclusive, let me make just four points.

Pro-Life Congressman Bart Stupak

#1. The context. The Senate bill was awful, earmarked with the kinds of pro-abortion largesse that no doubt warmed the cockles of Planned Parenthood's cold heart. Everything that the acceptance of the Stupak-Pitts amendment in the House excluded is included in the Senate version (H.R. 3590). President Obama, at the same time he is professing to be "reaching out" to opponents to find "common ground," has made it even worse.

#2. Context, Part Two. There is a disconnect so serious between what President Obama professes to be doing and what is actually in the works, it is enough to make your head spin. They are so contemptuous of the public's intelligence. How long they believe the American public can be duped. Like maybe through the November 2010 elections?

Although it is not directly related to our concerns as single-issue pro-lifers, Obama's transparent two-faced approach ought to convince all but those who have put their minds in cold storage that Obama is the embodiment of calculated cynicism. For example, Politico wrote the following this morning, which is very much worth reading.

"President Barack Obama has billed Thursday's health care summit as a chance for lawmakers to 'seek common ground' to solve a decades-old problem," writes Patrick O'Connor. "He doesn't want political theater, he insists, but a serious effort to forge bipartisan consensus. And yet Obama is unveiling a health care bill just days before the six-hour summit that wouldn't require a single GOP vote, with plans to short-circuit the Senate rules and push it through without Republicans if necessary. "

Pro-abortion President Barack Obama

#3. Obama proposes to increase to $12 billion the money going to the nation's 1,250 Community Health Centers. Not only is that $5 billion more than was included in a last-minute amendment to the Senate bill, there continues to be no restriction whatsoever on the use of federal funds to pay directly for abortion on demand. No doubt we will be told the Hyde Amendment would rinse the pro-abortion components out, but the fact is these funds are entirely untouched by the Hyde Amendment which currently covers Medicaid.

#4. Let me quote a paragraph near the end of the NRLC analysis in its entirety.

"A substantial number of pro-life Democrats in the House, including some lawmakers whose names have not been mentioned on the various published lists, have told their constituents that they are not going to vote for the Senate-passed bill because of the abortion problems. For pro-life Democrats, President Obama's proposal only makes matters worse. The only thing that would fix the Senate bill on abortion is permanent, bill-wide language that is functionally identical to the Stupak-Pitts Amendment adopted in the House on November 7, 2009."

This is critically important. At the health care "summit" this Thursday, President Obama will tell us for the gazillionth time that his proposal is not catnip to the pro-abortion lobby, that there are "protections" that keep the measure essentially neutral on abortion. Nothing could be further from the truth.

As passed in December, the Senate bill contains seven distinct problems pertaining to abortion, made worse, as mentioned, by Obama's suggested changes. No faux-gesture in the direction of finding "common ground" will suffice.

To repeat, "The only thing that would fix the Senate bill on abortion is permanent, bill-wide language that is functionally identical to the Stupak-Pitts Amendment adopted in the House on November 7, 2009."

Please keep up to date on details as they emerge by going to http://nrlactioncenter.com;  http://powellcenterformedicalethics.blogspot.com; and
http://stoptheabortionagenda.com/

Part Two
Part Three