Pro-Abortionists "Vexed by Health Care Debate"
Two of Two

By Dave Andrusko

I could write about this several times each day ad infinitum--the amazing and duplicitous ways pro-abortionists scramble categories and complain about items not currently on the table to mask their campaign to use health care "reform" to fortify and massively expand access to abortion. And, I probably will. Why?

First and foremost there has been a red-alert, all-systems-go counteroffensive by pro-abortionists who realize that we have made some in-roads into getting the truth out. We will hear verbal formulations over and over again intended to snooker the American people into believing that pro-lifers are wrong when we say (accurately!) that "Both houses of Congress are pushing towards votes on sweeping 'health care reform' bills that currently contain far-reaching pro-abortion provisions."

The one unambiguously accurate statement in an Associated Press story that ran yesterday under the headline "Abortion-rights forces vexed by health care debate," is contained in the first three sentences.

"NEW YORK --For some abortion-rights activists, the debate over health care reform has been frustrating, even disheartening, as they see their political allies on the defensive and their anti-abortion rivals on the attack. The crux of the dispute is reflected in the slogan adopted by many anti-abortion activists, 'Abortion is Not Health Care.' The abortion-rights movement says the procedure should indeed be considered a valid health care option, as worthy of public funding as any other form of care."

Most of the rest of the story is intended to reinforce the false perception that the White House and its key allies in Congress are actually bowing to our side's demands to apply the "Hyde Amendment principles" to the health care bills. In fact, every bill contains Hyde-inversion provisions that would result in direct federal funding of elective abortion, federal funding of premiums for private plans that cover abortion, provisions that would result in abortion mandates applying to private plans, or all three.

The story also includes the by-now automatic response that (as the White House told AP reporter David Crary) "no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions," a tortuously misleading verbal construction. To add insult to injury we are to believe that the thinking of leading pro-abortion organizations mirrors the equally misleading comments of NARAL policy director, Donna Crane, who said, "It's not suitable or helpful to fight the abortion question in health care reform" (which is precisely what they are doing).

The latter feint brings us back to the truism that pro-abortionists really do believe not only that abortion is health care, but also that taking the lives of innocent unborn children is an essential component of "improving overall health care options," as Stephanie Poggi of something called the National Network of Abortion Funds put it.

This reminds us that the crux of so much injustice is a verbal formulation that makes it acceptable to oppress, if not kill, innocent victims by simply writing them out of the story. Out of sight, out of mind. Sometimes the poor victim is even said to be "better off."

Ioan Gruffudd portrayed British Abolitionist William Wilberforce in the 2007 film, "Amazing Grace."

As it happens this week I again watched "Amazing Grace," the 2007 film that told the story of British abolitionist William Wilberforce's nearly 20-year campaign to put an end to the ghastly British slave trade.  One scene I had forgotten was when one of Wilberforce's leading opponents scornfully insisted that no one heard Africans complaining about the slave trade [as if they would have chauffeured into the House of Commons to make their case], and that it was only a few malcontent physicians who were spreading stories about the hideous conditions in which slaves in the West Indies lived their often very-brief lives.

Truth is truth, but no one ever said that those who defend a practice conceived in evil and birthed in blood would let a little thing like that get in the way. Be sure to read TN&V every day for updates and regularly visit www.nrlactioncenter.com.

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Part One