By Dave Andrusko

Part Two is an amazing story of a woman who has written about her 15 abortions--what is said and what is not said. Please send your comments on either part to daveandrusko@gmail.com. Happy Birthday plus one day to my wife, Lisa.

"WASHINGTON--President Obama suggested Monday that he was not comfortable with abortion restrictions inserted into the House version of major health care legislation, and he prodded Congress to revise them."
     -- New York Times
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It's a good thing that perseverance and sticktoitiveness are encoded in the DNA of pro-lifers. For while the Movement justly celebrates Saturday's huge victory in the House, all of us realize that this will only make pro-abortionists more determined to eliminate the Stupak-Pitts Amendment and produce a final health care "reform" measure that funds abortion on demand.

Pro-abortionists are in high dudgeon following the 240-194 House vote in favor of the amendment to H.R. 3962.

Pro-Life Congressman Bart Stupak

"We're furious at the Democrats, and dismayed about what's going on," said Terry O'Neill, president of NOW. Added Ted Miller, communications director for NARAL, "We will hold those lawmakers who voted for this measure accountable for abandoning women and capitulating to extreme factions of the anti-choice movement," he said.

Chimed in Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, "Pro-choice supporters in this country are going to be outraged that the anti-choice movement used this important debate over health care to expand anti-choice policies into the private employment sector."

Various and sundry pro-abortion members of Congress also vowed that the amendment had to go.

But the savvier pro-abortion strategists know that indirection and misdirection and (not to put too fine a point on it) out-and-out lies are necessary is they are going to be able to bamboozle the American public which does not want to federally fund abortion. Case in point: pro-abortion President Barack Obama.

Obama gave ABC's Jake Tapper an interview yesterday in which he once again insisted that he is Mr. Middle of the Road, neither advancing nor pruning abortion rights. As always, he was less than forthright. (Tapper is trying to get Obama to say that Stupak-Pitts was an "overreach" or "goes too far.")

"I laid out a very simple principle, which is this is a health care bill, not an abortion bill," President Obama said. "And we're not looking to change what is a core principle that has been in place for a very long time, which is federal dollars are not used to subsidize abortions." He indicated the bill should not change the status quo regarding the ban on federally funding abortions. He said "there are strong feelings on both sides" about the Stupak-Pitts Amendment passed on Saturday and added to the legislation, "and what that tells me is that there needs to be some more work before we get to the point where we're not changing the status quo."
[http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/abc-news-exclusive-obama-jobs-health-care-ft/story?id=9033559]

Get it? With his trusty hand at the wheel, Congress will make a quick left turn and return us to abortion neutrality in health care "reform," which the Stupak-Pitts Amendment threatens. How do we respond to such brazenly disingenuousness?

"The only thing that will prevent the health care bill from being 'an abortion bill' is precisely the Stupak-Pitts Amendment, as the House of Representatives recognized by a 46-vote margin," said Douglas Johnson, legislative director for NRLC. "The phoniness of Obama's claim that he has been trying to preserve the 'status quo' on abortion policy should be evident to any observer by now. In reality, the White House and top Democratic congressional leaders have been working hard to create a national federal government health plan that would fund abortion on demand, just as Obama promised Planned Parenthood."

Pro-Abortion President Barack Obama

What heightens the phoniness by a factor of about nine is that in the same interview Obama says he wants to be "sure" that the provision that emerges meets the "promise" that he made in a previous speech about health care and abortion--and that includes that "we are not in some way sneaking in funding for abortion."

But that is precisely what he and the pro-abortion Democratic congressional leadership has tried to do for months. And they have continued turning truth on its head--pretending that it is the Stupak-Pitts Amendment that is changing the rules of the game and not their ceaseless efforts.

If you read many of the news accounts since Saturday, you would think that Congressman Stupak had somehow snuck up on House Speaker Pelosi, lobbing a last-minute grenade into what had been peaceful negotiations. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Cong. Stupak has been forthright from the get-go. What is true is that it took months for him to get a meeting with Pelosi. However his intentions--and those of many other pro-life Democrats as well as all the many pro-life Republicans in the House--were known by every player. Nobody snuck up on anyone.

Final thought for today as the action shifts to the Senate. Again, depending on what account you read, you could easily come away thinking that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is pro-life or, at worst, the holder of a mixed (but largely pro-life) record on abortion. Truth be told Reid has played a key role in obstructing pro-life legislative priorities for years. So whatever you read about his eagerness to craft a “compromise” take with a pound of salt.

Keep track of ongoing events by regularly visiting http://nrlactioncenter.com.  Here is an excerpt from what is must reading:

The action now shifts to the U.S. Senate, where two committees have approved sweeping health care bills.

Senate Majority Leader Reid and a handful of Democratic senators, in consultation with the White House, are now creating a combined bill behind closed doors, which Reid says he hopes to bring to the Senate floor within a matter of weeks. It is certain that the Reid bill will contain pro-abortion components, including a "public plan" -- a health plan run directly by the federal government, which will fund elective abortions with federal funds (which are the only kind of funds that the government can spend). Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and other pro-life senators will seek to remove the pro-abortion elements through amendments on the Senate floor.

Part Two