"As secretary [of Health and Human Services], Ms. Sebelius would have considerable influence over government policy on abortion. Although she says she personally opposes abortion, she has consistently defended abortion rights in a state where the anti-abortion movement can be fierce. She has vetoed anti-abortion measures almost every year, including bills that would have required the licensing of abortion clinics and allowed relatives to petition a court to stop a late-term abortion."
      From "Obama Pick Gets a 2nd Chance on Health Care," by Kevin Sack, which appeared in yesterday's New York Times.

As you undoubtedly know, yesterday pro-abortion President Barack Obama officially nominated pro-abortion Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to be Secretary of Health and Human Services. It is a hugely influential position, especially in light of Obama's avowed determination to "reform" health care.

Sebelius is Choice #2. Former pro-abortion Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, assumed to be a shoo-in for confirmation, withdrew after it was learned that he had only recently paid a whopping $128,000 in back taxes.

Pro-abortion Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius speaks during a ceremony at the White House in which pro-abortion President Barack Obama named her as the Health and Human Services Secretary nominee.

For whatever reason, Sebelius will not also be (as what would have been the case with Daschle) the White House "health czar," according to published reports. But nonetheless the budget for HHS is an eye-popping $700 billion and the agency employs 65,000 employees

There is a lot to say about Sebelius, starting with the fact that with a solid pro-abortion Democratic majority in the Senate, she is most likely to be confirmed easily. But there are a lot of unpleasant things that will happen--have already happened--with the unholy triad of pro-abortion majorities in both houses and a pro-abortion occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

For example, Obama has already overturned the Mexico City Policy and has started the process of rescinding a regulation that enforces federal laws protecting the conscience rights of doctors and health care providers, to name just two. And his appointees look like they were plucked from a party hosted by PPFA, NARAL, and the pro-abortion outer fringes of academia.

The list of pro-abortion stalwarts in the Obama Administration is as lengthy as it is proof that Obama is no "moderate" on abortion. Going back to December, then President-elect Obama had already chosen a number of strong abortion advocates for key high-level jobs. They included Senator Hillary Clinton (NY) as secretary of state, former Clinton Administration official Eric Holder as attorney general, and Congressman Rahm Emanuel (D-Il.) as White House chief of staff. Melody Barnes, a former board member of both the Planned Parenthood Action Fund and EMILY's List (a pro-abortion PAC), serves as director of the Domestic Policy Council in the White House, and EMILY's List Executive Director Ellen Moran has become the White House communications director. University of Wisconsin Professor R. Alta Charo, a prominent critic of pro-life policies on biotech issues such as human cloning, has been assigned to the "Health and Human Services Review Team."

Then there is David Ogden, who has already been approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee for Deputy Attorney General. On behalf of the American Psychological Association, he filed a terrible amicus brief in Casey v. Planned Parenthood.

And Dawn Johnson, who has been nominated to serve as head of the Office of Legal Counsel. She is the former Legal Director to NARAL and was a Staff Counsel Fellow for the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project.

And Thomas Perrelli, who was nominated to serve as Associate Attorney General. He is most infamous for his defense of Terri Schiavo's husband who battled successfully to have life-sustaining treatment withdrawn from Terri.

But we can at least make our case so that the public will gradually come to understand that all the cover provided by certain self-described "pro-lifers" doesn't change that Obama is an extremist on abortion by anyone's definition.

For pro-lifers, the quote from the New York Times that begins this edition is short and to the point. While covering herself in the usual "personally pro-life" garb, Gov. Sebelius is fiercely pro-abortion.

From the get-go, she's been adamantly against pro-life initiatives. A state Representative from 1987-1995 she voted to weaken or eliminate parental notification, abortion waiting periods, and informed consent proposals as regularly as they were brought up by the Kansas legislature. As governor she twice vetoed abortion clinic regulation legislation-- in spite of accounts of rancid clinic conditions that would have appalled the staunchest pro-abortionist.

An attempt to add commonsense requirements to the state's parental notification law was vetoed in 2008. Sebelius has been particularly adamant that no legislation become law that might place even a speed bump on what is, in essence, the unimpeded highway to aborting older unborn babies, even babies who are viable.

Sebelius, a Catholic, is being defended by the usual Obama-defending blogs and some self-identified Catholics internet outlets. None of that changes what she stands for or what she has done.