On Saturday, October 4, pro-lifers in Portugal will walk in their 5th annual March for Life. March for Life President Jeanne Monahan relayed her greetings and best wishes for building a culture of life in Portugal.
Best Wishes to the Portugal March for Life
March for Life Responds to GAO Report
This week the non-partisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report confirming what pro-lifers have been warning since 2010, your tax dollars are funding abortion through the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”).
Today, the March for Life participated in a press conference calling attention to this broken promise and calling on the Senate to act. Read Jeanne Monahan’s remarks below:
Thank you to Mr. Pitts for sponsoring this important press conference and to all of the Members for taking time during such a full moment to discuss this critical report.
We probably all remember well the March of 2010 when the entire passage of healthcare law hinged on abortion coverage and support. The bottom line was that if abortion was included in the healthcare law, it wouldn’t get the support it needed in Congress to pass. In those intense days President Obama promised that abortion coverage would not be included in the healthcare law. He even went so far as to imply that Hyde protections — the established pro-life protections since the late 70s would remain status quo in the law.
Today we stand here to say that nothing could be further from the truth. We have known that but for those who were confused by the 1000+ pages in the bill and the very confusing rollout of this law, please read this GAO report and take it to heart. There is without a doubt abortion in the healthcare law. This report is about the state exchanges, but abortion is included in other ways. The largest expansion of abortion since Roe vs Wade.
For example, consider the HHS mandate forcing groups like the MfL to cover drugs and devices that can destroy life in its earliest stages. The March for Life is a non-religious, non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated solely to protecting human life in its most vulnerable stages. But because of the healthcare law we are being forced to cover abortifacients in our healthcare. We refuse to do that. And so we are now engaged in litigation fighting this injustice.
This summer the SCOTUS showed us that America still has all three branches keeping each other in check. With that hope we ask you to call your Senator to ask them to support HR7 and right the wrong of the Obama Administration and their broken promises.
A Long List of Broken Promises
Several weeks ago, I visited healthcare.gov in search of pro-life insurance plans offered under the Affordable Care Act. After spending several frustrating hours on the website, I gained only limited information. For example, I learned that some plans include abortion coverage in the summary of benefits, but more often than not there was no mention of coverage at all. Thus, as a young woman who opposes abortion, I was left in the dark as to whether my hard-earned dollars would pay for abortion.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report this morning that confirms my experience and indicates that there is, in fact, no consistent way to determine which plans under Obamacare cover abortion. The report stunningly reveals that in five states, including my home state of New Jersey, there is not one pro-life plan available. In December of 2013, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was asked under oath by Representative John Shimkus (R-IL) about how to determine the plans that cover abortion. She could not answer his question but promised to provide a list, which ultimately did not happen prior to her leaving the Administration. The Secretary also insisted that such information was clearly provided on the healthcare.gov website. A statement, which, from my experience, is blatantly inaccurate.
Pro-life Americans should not have to spend hours reading summaries of benefits, or talking on the phone with insurance companies, in order to know if their health care plan violates their deeply held beliefs. This reality flies in the face of the transparency that was promised by the Obama Administration.
Your taxes are funding abortions
The GAO report has an even more disturbing revelation: taxpayers from all 50 states are subsidizing abortion under Obamacare, despite the fact that President Obama and members of his Administration, promised the contrary. In 2009, referencing the Hyde Amendment, President Obama told America: “This is a health care bill, not an abortion bill. We are 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.” [i]
During the healthcare debate in 2009, pro-abortion forces refused to extend Hyde Amendment type protections to the Affordable Care Act. Every year since 1976, the Hyde Amendment has banned federal funding for abortion under Medicaid, and is one of the most significant pro-life policies since Roe v. Wade was decided by the Supreme Court in 1973. Rather than extending the these types of protections, Obamacare set up an “abortion surcharge” through which insurance companies would bill individuals separately for abortion coverage, creating a pool of money funded by individuals, not tax dollars, to pay for abortion. This was not only an accounting gimmick, but it was unfair to Americans who would not know that their money was directly paying for abortion. Americans have the right to informed consent for something as critical as their money paying for abortion!
The GAO report further reveals that not one of the eighteen companies surveyed did actually bill separately or itemized an abortion surcharge! In other words, the accounting gimmick put in place is not even being practiced, and through their taxes, Americans in all 50 states are paying for 1,036 of 2,089 plans to cover abortion. Roughly half of the plans available through Obamacare provide abortion on demand!
The Obama Administration’s list of broken promises continues to grow, and the non-partisan GAO report confirms this. This is not the transparency that America was promised. Please, no more broken promises, Mr. President.
[i] “Obama: ‘This is a Health Care Bill, Not an Abortion Bill” Nov 10, 2009,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pFiCPgmgqE
A Woman Who Truly Strove To Build a Culture of Life
Today, September 5, is Blessed Teresa of Calcutta’s (“Mother Teresa”) feast day according to the Catholic liturgical calendar. It is so, because Sept. 5 marks the anniversary of her passing to new life in 1997. Blessed Teresa of Calcutta is a personal hero of mine and she was a tremendous advocate for the unborn and the dignity of every human person.
Working in the pro-life movement, I feel a draw or even a small connection to Blessed Teresa and had the very special opportunity to meet her in Washington, DC, a few months before she passed away. Teeny-tiny in stature, she had clear, deep kind eyes, weathered skin that revealed a little bit of her physical labors in her mission, and a heart that was an interesting combination of tough and gentle and loving at the same time. Years after meeting her, I visited a few of her homes in India, and in doing so came understood a little more of the poverty and darkness (and light–especially of her sisters) in Calcutta.
One of my all-time favorite pro-life speeches is Mother Teresa’s remarks upon receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. I quote it in part below. Enjoy! Happy Feast Day, Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, thank you for your life and its profound light and witness to me.
“I was surprised in the West to see so many young boys and girls given into drugs, and I tried to find out why – why is it like that, and the answer was: Because there is no one in the family to receive them. Father and mother are so busy they have no time. Young parents are in some institution and the child takes back to the street and gets involved in something. We are talking of peace. These are things that break peace, but I feel the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a direct war, a direct killing – direct murder by the mother herself. And we read in the Scripture, for God says very clearly: Even if a mother could forget her child – I will not forget you – I have carved you in the palm of my hand. We are carved in the palm of His hand, so close to Him that unborn child has been carved in the hand of God. And that is what strikes me most, the beginning of that sentence, that even if a mother could forget something impossible – but even if she could forget – I will not forget you. And today the greatest means – the greatest destroyer of peace is abortion. And we who are standing here – our parents wanted us. We would not be here if our parents would do that to us. Our children, we want them, we love them, but what of the millions. Many people are very, very concerned with the children in India, with the children in Africa where quite a number die, maybe of malnutrition, of hunger and so on, but millions are dying deliberately by the will of the mother. And this is what the greatest destroyer of peace is today. Because if a mother can kill her own child – what is left for me to kill you and you kill me – there is nothing between. And this I appeal in India, I appeal everywhere: Let us bring the child back, and this year being the child’s year: What have we done for the child? At the beginning of the year I told, I spoke everywhere and I said: Let us make this year that we make every single child born, and unborn, wanted. And today is the end of the year, have we really made the children wanted? I will give you something terrifying. We are fighting abortion by adoption, we have saved thousands of lives, we have sent words to all the clinics, to the hospitals, police stations – please don’t destroy the child, we will take the child. So every hour of the day and night it is always somebody, we have quite a number of unwedded mothers – tell them come, we will take care of you, we will take the child from you, and we will get a home for the child. And we have a tremendous demand from families who have no children, that is the blessing of God for us.”
Find a transcript of the entire speech here.
What To Do with a ‘Do-Nothing’ Congress
August tends to be a slow, hot month in Washington, D.C., but not everyone was idle last month! Especially this year with the November election holding real promise for a pro-life Senate, organizations that promote the dignity of the human person from conception were actively engaged!
Groups such as the Susan B. Anthony List, Concerned Women for America PAC, FRC Action, National Right to Life Victory Fund and the newly founded Women Speak Out PAC are concentrating on key states to give pro-lifers an edge in the U.S. Senate.
Even with this unified approach pro-life groups face enormous odds as the political arms of taxpayer subsidized abortion giant Planned Parenthood, pro-abortion Emily’s List and the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) are extremely well financed. Planned Parenthood alone plans on spending over $20 million on the election.
Yet signs of confusion and defeat are on the horizon for abortion groups. Their latest approach is to abandon the “pro-choice” label. (An argument Secular Pro-life dissects as “disingenuous.” ) Abortion proponents are trying to normalize and downplay the significance of abortion. Advocating for taxpayer funded abortions, pushing abortion as anything but a “difficult decision” (denying the pain abortion brings to many involved), and calling for the death of babies diagnosed with Down’s Syndrome are just some of the latest trends from those who oppose the inherent dignity of the human person. And groups like Emily’s List, are even running awayfrom their pro-abortion roots and avoiding ads that use the word abortion (or the phrase “pro-choice.”)
So what does any of this have to do with a Hill update? A number of pro-life and pro-abortion groups give support to candidates. We mentioned last month the pro-abortion Democrats current legislation that seeks to eliminate all pro-life laws. There are common sense bills on the pro-life side that seek to protect children at 20 weeks gestation. As schools start up for most young people, here is some homework for everyone:
Where does your Member of Congress stand – and who stands behind them?
Let us know.