NRLC Legislative Alert:
President Obama, Pelosi, Reid launch big push for pro-abortion health bill!
Tell lawmakers that you oppose the massive Obama-backed health bills
The legislative situation may change rapidly — check this page frequently for updated information.WASHINGTON (Updated February 26, 2010, 5 PM EST) – President Obama and top Democratic congressional leaders have launched a final all-out push to enact a massive health care restructuring bill that, among other things, contains sweeping pro-abortion provisions.
The Senate passed the pro-abortion legislation (H.R. 3590) on December 24. However, so far the White House and Democratic leaders have been unable to muster the votes to pass the bill in the House of Representatives, partly because of resistance to the pro-abortion provisions among House pro-life Democrats, led by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mi.), and vigorous opposition from the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) and others.The White House game plan was disrupted on January 19, when Republican Scott Brown captured the U.S. Senate seat that had been held for decades by Senator Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.). The outcome was widely viewed as a reflection of public opposition to the sweeping approaches to health care restructuring that the Obama Administration and top congressional Democrats have made a top priority.
Nevertheless, President Obama and the top leaders of his party on Capitol Hill have regrouped and are going all out to try to push the legislation into law. “We will pass a bill,” vowed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca.) on February 22. Democrats currently control the 435-member House by a 77-seat margin.In recent weeks, NRLC lobbyists have been busy educating members of the House about why the Senate-passed bill is the most pro-abortion single piece of legislation ever to reach the floor of the House for a vote since Roe v. Wade. A showdown vote in the House is likely to occur before the end of March. Please read on to learn what you can do to prevent enactment of this destructive legislation.“The scope of the pro-abortion provisions in the Senate bill have been vastly understated by the mainstream news media,” said NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson. “By the conclusion of the amending process in the Senate, H.R. 3590 was the most expansive pro-abortion piece of legislation ever to reach the floor of either house of Congress for a vote, since Roe v. Wade. The Senate bill would allow direct federal funding of abortion on demand through Community Health Centers, would institute federal subsidies for private health plans that cover abortion on demand, including some federally administered plans, and would authorize federal mandates that could require even non-subsidized private plans to cover elective abortion.”Pelosi is currently involved in writing a new bill that would make certain changes to H.R. 3590, using a fast-track procedure called “reconciliation” that would not be subject to a Republican filibuster in the Senate. This so-called “sidecar” bill will include some of the changes that President Obama wants made to the Senate bill, as contained in a list released by the White House on February 22. However, “the changes proposed by President Obama would not fix any of the abortion problems in the Senate-passed bill,” said NRLC’s Johnson.Last November, the House removed pro-abortion provisions from its own version of health care legislation, H.R. 3962, by adopting an NRLC-backed amendment offered by Stupak and Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Pa.). The Stupak-Pitts Amendment passed 240-194, with support from 64 Democrats — one-fourth of all the House Democrats — and all except one Republican. But Obama opposed the Stupak language, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nv.) led a successful effort to keep it out of the Senate bill, H.R. 3590, which the Senate passed on December 24.(To view the complete NRLC statement on President Obama’s February 22 proposal, click here. To view or download a letter sent by NRLC to members of the U.S. House, explaining seven major abortion-related problems with the Senate-passed bill, click here.)This is no time to relax: It appears that Speaker Pelosi will make every effort to ram the legislation through the House before the end of March. Each member of the House should be urged to oppose the Senate-passed health bill (H.R. 3590), no matter what cosmetic changes are proposed or promised, because of the provisions that would result in abortion mandates and abortion subsidies. It is especially important that House Democrats who voted for the Stupak-Pitts Amendment on November 7, 2009, hear from constituents in opposition to the Senate bill. To view the House roll call on the Stupak-Pitts Amendment, click here.Please telephone the offices of your U.S. House member. The Washington offices of your representatives can be reached through the Capitol Switchboard, 202-225-3121. If you scroll to the bottom of this alert, you will find additional suggestions for ways to communicate with your federal representatives on this issue.To view or download a summary of recent public opinion polls on whether abortion should be covered in health care legislation, click here. To view the NRLC scorecard showing how your representative in the U.S. House of Representatives has voted on key pro-life issues during the current Congress, click here. To view the NRLC scorecard for the U.S. Senate for the current Congress, click here. To look up the entire voting record of any current member of Congress on NRLC-scored issues, click here, then enter the name of the lawmaker. Once you reach the lawmaker’s profile, chose the “Votes” tab. For lawmakers who have served for more than a few years, scroll to the bottom of the list of displayed votes and click “More Key Votes” to see his or her entire record back to 1997. What You Can Do Now* Please take a few minutes to use the form below to send messages to your U.S. House member and to your two U.S. senators to urge them to oppose the health care legislation backed by President Obama. You can modify the suggested message as you see fit — for example, to offer your views on other components of the legislation, including those relating to rationing of lifesaving medical treatments. When you fill in your mailing address, your messages will automatically be directed to the appropriate U.S. House member and to your two U.S. senators.
* In addition, please TELEPHONE the offices of your U.S. House member. Give your name and address, and tell the lawmaker’s staff person that you wish to be recorded as “opposed to the Senate health care legislation, H.R. 3590, because the bill contains multiple pro-abortion provisions and is unacceptable.” The offices of any House member can be reached through 202-225-3121. You can also find the direct-dial numbers (and fax numbers) for the Washington and in-state offices of your representative by calling up his or her individual profile on this website, here.* Also, please send short letters to the “letters to the editor” features of your local newspapers, in order to alert your fellow pro-life citizens to the pro-abortion policies that the Obama White House and the pro-abortion lobby are trying to smuggle into law through “health care reform.” You can find contact information for your local news media in our “Media Guide” here.* National Right to Life needs your help now more than ever. Please click here to donate to support NRL’s efforts to keep abortion out of health care legislation.* News media: For further information on this issue, contact NRLC at 202-626-8820 or 202-626-8825.
