NRL News
Page 1
November/December 2009
Volume 36
Issue 11-12

Urgent – Condition Red
Tell Congress NO to Pro-Abortion Health Care Bills!

WASHINGTON – At NRL News deadline on December 9, 2009, both houses of Congress were heavily engaged in consideration of mammoth “health care reform” bills. Pro-abortion President Barack Obama has declared that enactment of such legislation is his top domestic priority.

On November 7, the House of Representatives narrowly passed one version of such legislation, H.R. 3962. In a major pro-life victory, the House first adopted an NRLC-backed amendment, sponsored by pro-life representatives Bart Stupak (D-Mi.) and Joe Pitts (R-Pa.), that removed the worst pro-abortion components of the legislation, by a vote of 240 to 194 (see roll call, pages 19-21). However, the bill still contained objectionable elements on other pro-life issues.

Subsequently, rather than taking up H.R. 3962, the Senate began consideration of a different health care bill, proposed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nv.), the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” (H.R. 3590). As proposed, Reid’s bill contained pro-abortion provisions similar to those that had existed in the original House bill. Pro-life senators Ben Nelson (D-Ne.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) offered an amendment, backed by NRLC, to remove abortion subsidies and abortion mandates from the bill, but the Senate defeated this amendment on December 8, 54 to 45 (see roll call, pages 22-23).

At NRL News deadline, the Reid bill remained under consideration in the Senate. Because of its pro-abortion elements, and because of other provisions that would result in the rationing or denial of lifesaving care, NRLC is strongly opposed to the Reid bill. (See “Rationing Issues at Stake in Health Care Restructuring” on the back cover of this issue.)

IMPORTANT: In order for the bill to be sent to the House for further consideration, or to a House-Senate conference committee to be reconciled with the House-passed bill, it must first receive the support of at least 60 senators (out of 100) on what is called a “cloture vote.” If the Reid bill fails to achieve 60 votes for cloture, it will die in the Senate.

Please, call your two U.S. senators, and urge them to oppose the health care legislation. Time is short! Please act immediately!

(All U.S. senators can be called through the Capitol Switchboard, 202-224-3121.)

For details on other actions that you can take to help defeat this dangerous legislation, please visit the NRLC websites, which will also provide you with the most current information on the rapidly changing legislative situation:

NRLC home page: http://www.nrlc.org

NRLC Legislative Action Center: http://www.nrlactioncenter.com

NRLC Stop The Abortion Agenda: http://stoptheabortionagenda.com/ 

Urgent – Condition Red
Tell Congress NO to Pro-Abortion Health Care Bills!