Bachmann Urges Citizens to Come to D.C. to Protest Outrageous Obamacare Bill

Representative Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) was interviewed by Sean Hannity at FOX News this evening. In the interview, she calls this new "health care" reform bill "the crown jewel of socialism." It covers taxpayer funded abortions, government run health insurance, higher taxes, death panels, medicare cuts, end of life counselors, higher taxes (a $700 Billion tax increase), and 5.5 million jobs lost if this bill goes into place. This bill will collapse private insurance. Senior citizens and the handicapped will be taxed on pacemakers, hearing aides, knee replacements, hip replacements, etc.

Michelle Bachmann asks us to call Congress and meet up with her at the Capitol next Thursday at High Noon.

Death Panel Dudgeon

A very public disagreement between two prominent American bioethicists shows that they have only themselves to blame for attacks on their profession.

...Failed vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin was the first to ring alarm bells about "death panels" of bioethicists who would have divine powers of life and death in President Obama's health care plan. Palin highlighted the "Orwellian thinking" of President Obama's chief health care adviser, Ezechiel Emanuel, and basically accused him of introducing euthanasia by stealth. If she didn't name other bioethicists, the media did.

This infuriated the ASBH. Portraying the work of these thoughtful people as an attempt to hasten the deaths of patients was "a heinous form of intellectual violence" and contemptible dishonesty. This inflammatory rhetoric not only defamed individuals, but also "denigrate[d] bioethics as a profession," the ASBH said. The “death panels” – however absurd they were – became a public relations nightmare for the bioethics industry. "Bioethics" had become something sticky and malodorous on the sole of your shoe. Weeks later, the situation hasn't changed much. Dr Emanuel is still in the cross-hairs of critics of Obamacare. Earlier this month the head of the Southern Baptist Convention Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission had to apologise for bestowing an imaginary "Dr Josef Mengele Award" upon him in a rabble-rousing speech...

Read the rest of the article here

Pro-life Democrat group claims 40 lawmakers will vote against health care bill

Since Bart Stupak has admitted that he'll support pro-abortion healthcare anyway, let's pray that Kristen Day and Democrats for Life are more successful in getting CINO Pelosi and the party leadership to allow a vote on excluding abortion from government-run healthcare.

Democrats for Life of America claims to have 40 congressmen who will vote against the House health care reform legislation if taxpayer funded abortion language is not removed from the bill, the organization announced on Thursday.

The 40 vote coalition concerns the refusal of the House leadership to include language that would prevent abortions from being paid for in any new health care reform scheme. If Hyde Amendment-type language were inserted into the bill, Democrats for Life of America (DFLA) says, taxpayer funded abortions in appropriations bills would be prevented.

Several attempts to insert such language have been unsuccessful in committee.

"I want to be clear, pro-life Democrats want to help pass health care reform but our coalition can in no- way support reform that includes tax payer funded abortions. If the leadership will remove that language, we feel confident that we can deliver enough votes to help put this much needed reform over the top in the House," Kristen Day, DFLA Executive Director, said in a statement.

story here

cross-posted from A Catholic View

Senate Health Care Bill Could Make Planned Parenthood a Quasi-Government Entity

 Via Susan Brinkman, OCDS, at Living His Life Abundantly, Inc.:

The current version of the Senate’s health care reform bill may allow Planned Parenthood to become a quasi-government entity for sex education.


The American Life League is reporting that in Section 1803 of the America’s Healthy Future Act of 2009, which is the Senate’s version of health care reform, a National Teen Pregnancy Prevention Resource Center is created.

According to the language of the bill, “The Secretary shall award a grant to a nationally recognized, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that meets the requirements described in clause (ii) to establish and operate a national teen pregnancy prevention resource center (in this subparagraph referred to as the ‘Resource Center’) to carry out the purpose and activities described in clause (iii). (emphasis added)

Read the rest of the story here.

Bishops Call for Unprecedented, Massive Catholic Opposition to Abortion in Current Health Care Reform

Excellent news: 40 years after being silenced by Vatican II, some of our Bishops are finally starting to speak up and lead their flocks in the faith.

An E-mail directive has been sent from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Pro-Life Activities Secretariat mobilizing every parish in the United States of America. It contains an urgent message which is to be distributed in every parish this weekend and announced at every single Mass. This massive and urgent appeal may be unprecedented in our history as Catholics in America. It is an effort to mobilize the Catholic faithful on an urgent matter of public policy concerning the fundamental and foundational human right to life.

The E-Mail specifically asks that no parish opt out of this initiative.

story here

cross-posted from A Catholic View

How Pro-Life is Stupak?

Was it too good to be true?
A pro-life Democrat?
Stupak has been battling to keep abortion out of government-run healthcare, even threatening CINO Pelosi that he has enough votes to hold it up, and asking Obama to keep his promise and keep it out. Now, Stupak admits that he'll still vote for Obamacare.
It seems it was too good to be true.

A video released by the Heritage Foundation blog appears to show Democratic Rep. Bart Stupak, whose efforts against the health care bill's abortion expansion had emerged as the pro-life community's primary strategy in the House, admitting that he would ultimately vote for the health bill even with government-funded abortion if it otherwise met his standards.


story here

cross-posted from A Catholic View

Louisiana bishops join health care debate, with warning on protecting human life

Health care is a basic right and its proposed reform must provide access for all while also excluding abortion funding and protecting the consciences of health care providers, a Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops statement says.

In its Oct. 26 statement, the Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops (LCCB) noted that Pope John XXIII’s encyclical Pacem in Terris taught of “universal and inviolable” rights that include the right to medical care and to be looked after in times of ill health. There is also an “apostolic duty” to heal the sick while proclaiming the Gospel, they said.

“For centuries, Catholic hospitals have served and ministered to the sick and the dying. Other Catholic institutions have welcomed and served the elderly, handicapped, expectant mothers, newborns, and others with physical, emotional or spiritual needs,” the Louisiana bishops wrote. “This is an important expression of our respect for the innate dignity that lies within every human being, regardless of race, nationality, religion, political opinion, or social class.”
 
This respect for life, the LCCB said, motivates Catholics to ask Congress to support reforms that exclude public health care funds for abortion, prohibit any form of euthanasia, protect conscience rights for health care professionals and institutions, and respect the right of a physician and a patient to decide on healing treatment without interference.

Click here to read the entire story.

All of the Bishops Reject Health Care Bill: It Fails To Protect Human Life

CNA reported this today:

All of the Catholic bishops in Texas released a statement on health care reform on Tuesday, warning that the legislation currently under consideration does not adequately ensure the protection of all human life.

The statement issued by the Texas Catholic Conference, which represents all 15 dioceses in Texas, said that the bishops “hope that our national leaders will work together to bring about genuine life-affirming reform to our nation’s health care system.” 


“Our Catholic moral tradition teaches that every human being, from the moment of conception to natural death, has an innate dignity that entitles him or her to certain rights and protections, including the fundamental right to life and the right to affordable health care, which flows from the right to life,” they stated. However, the bishops of Texas also said that they are concerned that the current proposed reforms do not respect these human rights. They singled out the Capps Amendment for criticism, saying that it “does not adequately ensure the protection of all human life.” 

Last night Marcel at Aggie Catholics shared this story with the blogosphere, and today, Thomas, The American Papist, adds these Bishops to the list he has been compiling for over a month now on U.S. Bishops who vigorously oppose the current health care reform proposals being debated in Congress. I agree with the point Thomas makes there -- that the message they are sending out is very clear -- it is against Catholic teaching to support the health care bill as it currently exists based on the above statement -- in short, it does not adequately protect all human life  -- from the moment of conception to natural death. 

The Bishops want "genuine life-affirming reform" not this phony and deceptive bill the Obama admisnistration is attempting to force upon us. The advocates and creators of this bill want us to believe that abortion isn't going to be covered (at the tax-payers expense) and  that there will not be rationing for the elderly and disabled and that this will all be done without massive tax increases. They are trying to make us believe that it is wise for us to give up our privacy and control (individual decision making) and let the government control this aspect of our lives. We'll be so much better off that way, they claim. These culture of death advocates think we can't see through their trickery, but God has gifted us with His wisdom and discernment so that we will remain faithful and obedient to His laws and His commands, not those of our secular society. I am grateful to these Bishops who have spoken out -- for, we as Catholics, look to the leadership of  the Church to shepherd us and to point us to the truth.

Rep. Stupak calls on President Obama to support abortion funding restrictions

A reasonable request, considering that CINO Pelosi is so determined to include abortion (she doesn't even want to allow a vote on whether to include it) and also that Barry himself promised that abortion would not be funded (see video below).

Pro-life Democratic Congressman Bart Stupak (D-MI) has called on President Obama to back up his stated support for the exclusion of abortion funding from health care legislation. Recounting how congressional leaders are opposing funding restrictions, Stupak warned that action is needed as “crunch time” arrives.

Rep. Stupak, who is advocating the inclusion of a Hyde Amendment provision that would bar federal abortion funding from proposed health care reform, spoke about his health care conversation with President Obama in an interview with CNSNews.com.

On Sept. 9 President Obama had told a joint session of Congress: “Under our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions.”

story here

cross-posted from A Catholic View

Fr. Pavone on President Obama’s Promise Not to Fund Abortion in “My Plan"

Staten Island, NY - Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life, responded today to President Obama’s statement to Congressman Bart Stupak (D-MI) that when he said in his September speech to Congress that “our plan” would not use federal dollars to fund abortion, he was not referring to any of the bills pending in Congress.

“Every time the President has spoken of not wanting to fund abortion in ‘his’ health care plan, no one has really known what measure he was talking about,” said Fr. Pavone. “Now we know from his conversation with Congressman Stupak that the President’s ‘plan’ has never seen the light of day. Or maybe, to paraphrase former President Bill Clinton, it depends on what the word ‘plan’ means.”

Does the deception never cease?

1,000,000 letters. 1 message. President Obama: "I do not want government-run 'healthcare'...

I received the following email:

Dear Hawaii Mom,
I wanted to let you know about a new and unique effort I am involved with that gives people the opportunity to voice their opposition to government-run "healthcare." Information about the 1,000,000 LETTERS TO PRESIDENT OBAMA campaign is available at Saint Catherine of Seina Company
I hope you will participate in and promote this effort.
Sincerely,
Patrick Benedict
Saint Catherine Of Siena Company

Showdown: Democrat Rep. Stupak Locked in Dead Heat with House Leadership over Pro-Life Health Amendment

As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (CINO) aims to seal the abortion-expanding health care bill in an early November vote, pro-life lawmakers, led by Democratic Rep. Bart Stupak of Michigan, are locked in a dead heat race for votes with Democratic leadership. According to Stupak, the Democratic leadership intends to keep a stranglehold on any pro-life amendment effort, which they acknowledge would likely otherwise succeed.

In an interview with LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) today, Rep. Stupak said that he is counting on about 40 fellow Democrats to "take down the rule" - or kill the bill on a procedural vote - if House leadership refuses to allow a floor vote on an amendment that would prevent federal funding of abortion. The procedural "rule" vote would draft rules for debating the bill on the floor, and needs to be passed before the bill can move forward to a floor vote.

With the 40 Democrats, Stupak's vote-gathering efforts tally up to 220, counting the whole GOP - approximately two votes over the absolute minimum needed to succeed.

story here

cross-posted from A Catholic View

Senate Bill Will Include 'Public Option' Opt Out

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Monday that Senate Democrats will include in the health care reform bill a government-backed health insurance program that allows states to opt out if they can come up with an alternative.

"I think it's the fairest way to go," Reid said of the "opt out" proposal.

The "opt out" proposal would set up a national insurance plan with government seed money and be run by a private, not-for-profit board. Under the proposal, states would have to prove they can provide comparable coverage in order to exit out of the federal plan. The plan would also negotiate rates with providers just like private insurance companies do, presumably keeping premiums on a level playing field with the private industry.

The measure is one of a host of different so-called public options being considered in the Senate. Though the public option seemed off the table in the chamber just one month ago, it gained traction in recent weeks as Democratic leaders floated versions meant to be more appealing to party moderates.

story here

Harry Reid's Inflammatory Language vs Health Insurers Divorced from Reality

Reid Says Senate Bill Will Have Public Plan

WASHINGTON -- The Senate's top Democrat said the health-care bill he is bringing to the Senate floor will include a government-run health-insurance plan, a remarkable comeback for an idea that was voted down in a key committee less than a month ago.

The announcement by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid came as the White House-backed drive to overhaul the nation's health-care system picked up pace. "We're all optimistic about reform because of the unprecedented momentum that now exists," Mr. Reid said.

Read the full article here.

Pelosi wants to ram the pro-abortion health care bill through the House

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Ca.) is planning to try to ram the massive health care bill (H.R. 3200) through the House on short notice, without allowing consideration of a critical pro-life amendment.  National Right to Life is urging every pro-life citizen to immediately TELEPHONE the office of his or her representative in the U.S. House of Representatives with a clear and firm message urging a NO vote on the so-called "rule," which is the procedural vote that would allow passage of H.R. 3200 with no amendments allowed, and also to vote against the pro-abortion bill itself.

Even if you have already called and written your representatives in Congress about the health care bills, it is critical that you call again now.  This will just take a few minutes.  For guidance on how to make your call, click here.

Once there, you will see a box labeled "CALL NOW."  Once you enter your zip code in that box, you will be shown the name and phone number of your representative in the U.S. House, along with suggested "talking points" that will help you deliver a crisp, clear message to your representative's staff person in Washington, D.C.

Nullifying National Health Care in Kansas

This Tuesday, 10-27-09, Kansas State Senator Mary Pilcher-Cook and other state legislators will be announcing a “Kansas Health Care Freedom Amendment” – a proposal for a state constitutional amendment that would effectively nullify national health care in that state.

Already, four states are considering similar amendments, and more than 15 may see them introduced in the 2010 legislative session.

Read more here.

Obama's Doctor Shortage

Alysia Finley at WSJ writes about Obama's doctor shortage and what he's doing to make it worse:

In his campaign for health-care reform, President Obama has repeatedly harped about a primary care doctor shortage. "The status quo is we don't have enough primary care physicians," President Obama said in an ABC interview in July. The president promises that his health-care reform proposal will address the problem of a primary care physician shortage---and he's right. He will make it worse.

Mr. Obama wants to provide insurance for an additional 30 million Americans, but recent experience in Massachusetts shows that universal coverage will result in an even greater physician shortage and longer waiting times for patients.

Read the full story here. 


H/T:  Kate Wicker.

Get to Work: The Impact of Goverment Health Care on the Next Generation

House Democrats Likely Won't Allow Vote to Cut Abortion From Health Care Bill

It appears House Democrats will likely not allow a vote on an amendment that would strip abortion funding from HR 3200, the legislation that will meld the three health care "reform" bills into one. Although a coalition of pro-life Democrats is hoping for a vote, it appears none is forthcoming.

Rep. Bart Stupak, a pro-life Democrat from Michigan, has been leading the way in an attempt to get an amendment that would remove the massive abortion funding and subsidies from the bill.

However, in a new report issued today, the Associated Press makes it appear that's not going to happen.

"Such an amendment would be almost certain to prevail, since it likely would attract the votes of most Republicans as well as some Democrats. So Democratic leaders won't let Stupak offer it," AP indicates.

Stupak told AP that he sees an impasse with one of the top pro-abortion Democrats who chairs one of the committees that approved a version of the bill, Rep. Henry Waxman -- who also said there is a hangup.

story here

cross-posted from A Catholic View

Patrick Kennedy: Catholic Church Fanning ‘Flames of Dissent and Discord’ by Opposing Health Bill Over Abortion Funding

Patrick continues the Kennedy tradition of ignoring Church teachings while calling himself Catholic (CINO). The Bishops are 100% correct to oppose any funding of abortion.

Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I) told CNSNews.com that the Catholic Church is doing nothing but fanning “the flames of dissent and discord” by taking the position that it will oppose the health-care reform bill under consideration in Congress unless it is amended to explicitly prohibit funding of abortion.

“I can’t understand for the life of me how the Catholic Church could be against the biggest social justice issue of our time, where the very dignity of the human person is being respected by the fact that we’re caring and giving health care to the human person--that right now we have 50 million people who are uninsured,” Kennedy told CNSNews.com when asked about a letter the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) had sent to members of Congress stating the bishops' position on abortion funding in the health-care bill.

“You mean to tell me the Catholic Church is going to be denying those people life saving health care? I thought they were pro-life?” said Kennedy. “If the church is pro-life, then they ought to be for health care reform because it’s going to provide health care that are going to keep people alive. Patrick, if you really are Catholic, YOU should be opposing any 'healthcare' that provides abortion. So this is an absolute red herring and I don’t think that it does anything but to fan the flames of dissent and discord and I don’t think it’s productive at all."

story here

cross-posted from A Catholic View

From the Catechism:

2272 Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life. "A person who procures a completed abortion incurs excommunication latae sententiae," "by the very commission of the offense," and subject to the conditions provided by Canon Law. The Church does not thereby intend to restrict the scope of mercy. Rather, she makes clear the gravity of the crime committed, the irreparable harm done to the innocent who is put to death, as well as to the parents and the whole of society.

Don't Shut Us Out

  


As a candidate for President, Barack Obama promised us transparency and an open forum when it came to health care. President Obama has instead met behind closed doors, away from the public, and away from the press. Send a message to the President: Dont Shut us Out by visiting http://dontshutusout.org

~ Via letfreedomringusa.

Behind Closed Doors

 This is an interesting video which accurately portrays what's happening in DC:

HEALTH CARE REFORM AND THE POTENTIAL FOR MADNESS WITHOUT PITY

By Judie Brown

In her seminal book Dialogues with the Devil, Taylor Caldwell digs deep into a fictional Lucifer’s psyche as well as that of Saint Michael the Archangel. While it is a work of fiction, there are profound insights throughout, including Lucifer’s description of human beings who choose to do evil. He tells Saint Michael, “Evil is madness and has no pity, and therefore it is confusion thrice compounded. Evil men possess no wits. They are easily led to believe what they wish to believe.”

These succinct phrases are very applicable to that grave fear of the unknown many Americans experience at the thought of the federal government managing everyone’s health insurance. My sense is that these concerns are not far off the mark. A visit to the real world is in order before anyone jumps up to claim that Judie Brown is just a right-wing fanatic who doesn’t care about all those millions of Americans without health insurance. This persistent allegation about my intentions is false, but what I am about to share is very real.

Read the entire article here.

House Close to Votes for Pro-Abortion Health Care Bill, But Senate Another Story

House leaders triumphantly announced yesterday that they are close to having enough votes to approve a health care bill with a public option that includes abortion funding. However, the Senate is another story as lawmakers shy away from supporting the government option that expands abortion funding further.

As LifeNews.com reported on Wednesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi asked her top lieutenants to conduct a vote count to determine where members of the party stand on HR 3200, which pro-life groups oppose.

The results came back showing 210 of the 218 lawmakers needed to support the pro-abortion bill are on board.

However, the Senate is a different ball game entirely because support for a bill with the public option is much weaker.

As the Associated Press notes in a new story today, "Obama and Democratic leaders have modest leverage over several pivotal Senate Democrats who are more concerned about their next election or feel they have little to lose by opposing their party's hierarchy."

story here

cross-posted from A Catholic View

'Abortion crushes hope,' says Rep. Chris Smith

Chris Smith, along with Bart Stupak, is one of the most prominent and active pro-lifers in the House of Representatives.

Pro-life leaders gathered in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the danger of federally-funded abortion being a part of health care reform. One speaker, Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), said that although President Obama ran his presidential campaign on “hope,” “abortion crushes hope” and is “its polar opposite.”

The press conference took place at the House Triangle, a grassy triangular area near the Capitol Building. Others present were: Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), Representatives Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Mike Pence (R-Ind.) as well as the organizations Focus on the Family Action, Susan B. Anthony List, National Right to Life Committee, Family Research Council and Concerned Women for America. These organizations are really "for women", not the pro-aborts who claim to be, and injure women with abortion.

story here

cross-posted from A Catholic View

Video: The Truth About the Senate Bill

House Democrats: We Have Almost Enough Votes for Pro-Abortion Health Care

House Democrats said today that they have almost enough votes to get a pro-abortion health care bill through the chamber. The votes they say they have collected include almost enough for the government option, which would expand abortion funding even further.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi asked her top lieutenants this week to conduct a vote count to determine where members of the party stand on HR 3200, which pro-life groups oppose.

Three House committee have approved different versions of the bill, all of which include massive abortion funding and mandates, that Pelosi and top Democrats will meld into one measure.

Congressional Progressive Caucus Chairman Raul Grijalva, an Arizona Democrat, said today that House Democrats have secured about 210 votes for a bill with the controversial public option.

That's just eight votes short of the 218 needed to approve the pro-abortion bill.

story here

cross-posted from A Catholic View

Throw off the scent; chase a Fox.

Jill Stanek begins......

An extended New York Daily News excerpt from my previous post, "Obama's pro-abortion base 'livid,'" makes a good intro to this piece:

But increasingly, noisy factions on the party's most liberal flank - among them gay rights proponents, pro-choice activists and immigration reformers who Obama courted last year - are incensed that their causes have taken a backseat to the White House's all-out push on health care reform.

What to do? Throw off the scent; chase a
Fox.














This is a follow-up to her previous post:


Jill Stanek - Obama uses Fox decoy to throw off scent

Are Democrats bribing doctors to support Obamacare?

Via RS RedState:

This week the Senate is considering its next payoff to a powerful lobbying group—a $247 billion package for the American Medical Association.  The funding is not offset and would dramatically increase the deficit.  Harry Reid is betting that the bill will prove politically impossible for most Senators, including Republicans, to oppose as it addresses the number one priority for most doctors over the years—the fact that Medicare doesn’t reimburse them enough.  By considering the “doc fix” apart from overall healthcare reform, he and Max Baucus remove a major cost to that package.  As Senator McConnell said, “This is so transparent. They’re taking this issue out of health care, suggesting that we spend a quarter of a trillion dollars, not pay for it, so that they can then argue, the very next week potentially, that this trillion-dollar health care bill is paid for.”

Even the media is reporting this is a bribe. Harry Reid will pay off the doctors’ lobby and in exchange the doctors lobby will support Obamacare.

Read the entire story here.

Update: Harry Reid just ran to the Senate floor and cried that he cannot get enough votes to pass the doctors’ bribe to support Obamacare. He blamed the AMA for misleading him. 

Jill Stanek: Obama's pro-abortion base "livid"

Obama's pro-abortion base "livid"

The headline of an October 18 New York Daily News piece caught my (Jill Stanek's) eye...

Liberals frustrated with President Obama; angry their issues took back seat to health care reform

Read more of the article that caught her eye here .

Jill's piece on this topic includes video of the Senior Advisor to the President, Valerie Jarrett's 8 minute talk at NARAL's 18th annual National Power of Choice Luncheon

Please read Jill's comments here:

Jill Stanek - Obama's pro-abortion base "livid"

Obama Administration's HHS Web Site Promotes Pro-Abortion Health Care Bills

Anyone surprised? We are talking about the most pro-abort president in history. even a site like serve.gov will be used to advance abortion.

While the administration of President Barack Obama is supportive of the pro-abortion health care bills in Congress, the actual federal government is supposed to remain neutral on legislative matters. However, the Department of Heath and Human Services is getting heat for promoting the pro-abortion health care bills.

A web page HHS runs urges visitors to send an email to Obama praising him for his pro-abortion health care plan.

According to a Roll Call report, the page is accessed through a “state your support” button featured prominently on the web page that features a disclaimer saying it is maintained by the HHS department.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, a pro-life Iowa Republican who is the ranking member on the Senate Finance committee, one of two panels to have approved a pro-abortion health care bill, is not happy.

story here

Archbishop Chaput addresses Catholic doctors

Archbishop Chaput addressing Catholic Physicians in Phoenix addressed the lives of special needs children and how Catholic Doctors should be champions of the Culture of Life. He says that those who do not respect human life will be held accountable in the life to come.
It seems that he fears a great moral challenge is ahead. . .
"The Nobel Peace Prize winner Albert Schweitzer once wrote that, “A man is truly ethical only when he obeys the compulsion to help all life which he is able to assist, and shrinks from injuring anything that lives.” Every child with Down syndrome, every adult with special needs; in fact, every unwanted unborn child, every person who is poor, weak, abandoned or homeless – each one of these persons is an icon of God’s face and a vessel of his love. How we treat these persons – whether we revere them and welcome them, or throw them away in distaste – shows what we really believe about human dignity, both as individuals and as a nation.

The American Jesuit scholar Father John Courtney Murray once said that “Anyone who really believes in God must set God, and the truth of God, above all other considerations.”
Let's pray that not only these doctors but all doctors are listening, they may have to resist the demands of Obamacare if we are not successful in stopping it.

Read his entire address on the Archdiocese of Denver website.

Pro-Abortion Group NARAL Attacks Pro-Life Democrat Bart Stupak on Health Care

Stupak is really under attack from pro-aborts for his efforts to keep abortion out of Obamacare.

Abortion advocates normally reserve their ammunition for attacks on pro-life Republicans and groups. They rarely focus their sights on pro-life Democrats, but they're now going after Rep. Bart Stupak of Michigan because he is pressing for a vote to make sure the House health care bill doesn't fund abortions.

Stupak is leading the battle in Congress on HR 3200 and against the Capps Amendment that pro-abortion lawmakers added to deceive the public into thinking abortions will not be funded.

Because of his stalwart stance, NARAL has produced a new video attacking him that its president Nancy Keenan mailed to pro-abortion activists today.

"I'll be honest -- we all expected a fight from the usual anti-choice (No Nancy, we're not anti-choice. We choose life. We oppose killing babies.) agitators on health-care reform," she said. "We expected it from Rep. Michele Bachmann, Rep. John Boehner (R-OH), the Family Research Council, and the American Life League." Two excellent organizations :)

story here

cross-posted from A Catholic View

Obama, health care plummet in the polls

 Going down, down, he's going down...

Via Dakota Voice:

The latest poll out today from Rasmussen Reports finds support for Obamacare still dropping among the American people, with 54% opposed to the socialist overhaul of our health care system. Only 24% strongly favor it (these are probably hard-core Marxists and people who work very hard to avoid serious employment).

Even one of President Obama’s main cheering sections, CNN, admits the honeymoon is over for the American people:

According to the poll, which was released Tuesday, 48 percent of people questioned say that they agree with Obama on the issues that matter most to them, with 51 percent saying no. That’s a switch from April, when 57 percent said they agreed with the president on important issues, with 41 percent disagreeing.

Click here for the entire story.

Santorum: The Triumph of Socialism in U.S. Requires Destruction of Family & Church

A grim, but accurate warning from Rick Santorum.
This is why the administration is in such a rush to pass government-run healthcare.

Both the family and the Church stand in the way of socialism's triumph, former US Senator Rick Santorum told Christians gathered for the 17th International Week of Prayer and Fasting last week. The pro-life champion warned attendees, however, that both institutions are under heavy attack from Obama-administration policies.

"We are under a great assault with this President and this Congress on the issue of life. We are under a great assault, maybe even greater assault, on the foundational issue of the family," Santorum told those gathered for the October 11 dinner at the Omni Shoreham Hotel.

Santorum said that the left's policies, especially those policies aggressively set forward by the Obama administration, target the family and Christian churches for "destruction," because these institutions provide local social networks and support for individuals that take away the need for total dependence on central government. To eliminate these social networks means the triumph of socialism, and that means attacking marriage and Christian churches.


story here

cross-posted from A Catholic View

Fox News: Barack Obama, Democrats Pushing Unpopular Public Option for ObamaCare

The Wall Street Journal: Public Option Gets New Life in Senate

Obama Won't Demand Public Option, Battle Could Delay Pro-Abortion Health Care

Barry wants to pass Obamacare ASAP. He will just try to add the public option later.

The White House is saying that President Barack Obama is not demanding the public option in the final version of the pro-abortion, government-run health care bill. The lack of a demand is not yet helping a battle between House and Senate Democrats that could ultimately delay the abortion-funding legislation.

In an interview Sunday with NBC's "Meet the Press," senior adviser Valerie Jarrett said Obama believes the government option is the "best possible choice," but she said he is not insisting on it.

Also, the president's top adviser, David Axelrod, downplayed the importance of a government-run insurance option and he noted how strong opposition to it in the Senate means "we have to work through these issues."

"The president has very consistently and clearly articulated his support for a public option," Axelrod said on ABC's "This Week," but he added, "that doesn't mean that we -- we halt the process."

story here

cross-posted from A Catholic View

Pro-life leader calls health care proposals a ‘radical departure’ from current abortion policy

Pro-life leader Charmaine Yoest has charged that a compromise now being considered for health care reform legislation would mark a “radical departure” from the past by sidestepping pro-life funding provisions and requiring every area of the country to have at least one health insurance plan that covers abortions.

Yoest, President of Americans United for Life, on Wednesday wrote in a Wall Street Journal opinion essay that provisions which would have explicitly prevented federal dollars from being used for elective abortions were “killed” by all five legislative committees that have handled health care reform bills.

“Instead, the abortion compromise in the works is a provision modeled on an amendment Rep. Lois Capps (D., Calif.) added to the House bill,” she reported, calling the amendment a “radical departure from the status quo.”

According to Yoest, at present the federal government does not pay into health care plans that cover elective abortions, nor are government health benefits used for such purposes.

story here

cross-posted from A Catholic View

Under ObamaCare even Middle Class Americans will be forced to become Welfare Recipients

The Heritage Foundation is reporting that the Baucus Bill will move 14 million new Americans onto the Welfare rolls when Obama Care is implemented.

ADDING INSULT TO INJURY: THE BAUCUS HEALTH PLAN IMPOSES NEW TAXES ON THE SICK

Public support for health care reform is based on a desire to help the sick or, at the very least, to protect the non-wealthy from the financial impact of illness, chronic disease, and accidents.  Unfortunately, the reform proposals under active consideration in Congress do precisely the opposite, say Heritage Foundation researchers Robert A. Book, Guinevere L. Nell and Paul L. Winfree.

In particular, the Baucus health reform proposal, recently passed by the Senate Finance Committee, imposes new taxes on those who need health care the most and on lower-income people with the least ability to pay -- in some cases to fund coverage subsidies that will primarily go to young, healthy people with moderate incomes.

The proposal would impose:

• Higher taxes on taxpayers at all income levels who face high out-of-pocket medical expenses or have high-cost health plans, including patients living in poverty.
• "Annual fees" (i.e., taxes) on the medical device and pharmaceutical industries, which would have to be passed on in the form of higher prices to patients who pay out of pocket, and to insurance plans, which will have to raise their premiums.
• An "annual fee" on insurance companies that will be passed on to patients directly in the form of higher premiums.

Despite President Obama's promise not to raise taxes "one dime" for those earning below $250,000, this proposal would increase taxes on households with incomes substantially below that level -- and especially on households facing the worst health problems, say Book, Nell and Winfree.

The revenue from these taxes is intended to offset premium subsidies for households with incomes below four times the federal poverty level (FPL), but these taxes would be imposed on Americans who need medical devices or prescription drugs, have high out-of-pocket costs, or pay their own health insurance premiums -- including many households with incomes below four times the federal poverty level (FPL).

Source: Robert A. Book, Guinevere L. Nell and Paul L. Winfree, "Adding Insult to Injury: The Baucus Health Plan Imposes New Taxes on the Sick," Heritage Foundation, WebMemo No. 2651, October 15, 2009.

The EdgeHealthcare and Catholics: True and False Arguments

Some important points for Catholics to consider regarding healthcare.

Healthcare reform – it’s one of those causes almost everyone favors, but which almost automatically produces sharp arguments when we ask what it means and how it might be realized. You would have had to be living in a cave for the past eight months to be unaware that Americans are deeply divided on this matter, and that the division runs clean through the middle of many communities. That includes Catholic America.

Of course, there are a small number of non-negotiables for Catholics, whatever their politics, when it comes to healthcare reform. These principally concern any provisions that facilitate or encourage the intentional termination of innocent human life, or which diminish existing conscience exemptions.

Without question, these are the primary issues for Catholics who take their Church’s teaching seriously when it comes to healthcare legislation. They dwarf everything else.

No matter how good the rest of the legislation might be in, for example, widening access to affordable healthcare, it is a stable principle of Catholic faith - and natural law - that you cannot do evil in order that good may come from it. St Paul insisted upon this almost 2000 years ago (Romans 3:8), and it is constantly affirmed by Scripture, Tradition, and centuries of magisterial teaching. Try as they may, no amount of rationalization by the usual suspects can get around this point.

story here

cross-posted from A Catholic View

ANOTHER INSURER'S REPORT WARNS ABOUT COST OF SENATE HEALTH BILL

Insurance companies have another made-to-order report saying that the Senate Finance Committee's health bill would drive up health cost, says the Wall Street Journal.  The logic is pretty simple: If lots of sick people sign up for insurance, while many healthy people take their chances on going uncovered, the price tag on a health-insurance policy is going to rise sharply.

That was the scenario outlined in a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers released Monday by America's Health Insurance Plans, the leading industry trade group.  Now the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association is hawking its own report by Oliver Wyman, a consulting firm that is part of Marsh & McLennan Cos.:

• The Oliver Wyman report says that unless the Senate beefs up the proposed mandate on Americans to carry insurance, average annual medical claims five years after the overhaul takes effect would be 50 percent higher than today, not accounting for medical inflation. 
• That would increase the premiums for family coverage by $3,300 in today's dollars, it says.

The latest report isn't likely to get any friendlier reception among Democrats than the first one, which Democratic senators denounced for what they described as faulty assumptions.  In fact, the pressure among some senators, including the all-important Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) is for an even more lenient individual mandate.  Critics of the strong mandate sought by insurers say it isn't fair to make people buy insurance they can't afford.

Source: Peter Landers, "Another Insurer's Report Warns About Cost of Senate Health Bill," Wall Street Journal, October 15, 2009.

Obama's Health Rationer-in-Chief

In the June 18, 2008, issue of JAMA, Dr. Emanuel blames the Hippocratic Oath for the "overuse" of medical care: "Medical school education and post graduate education emphasize thoroughness," he writes. "This culture is further reinforced by a unique understanding of professional obligations, specifically the Hippocratic Oath's admonition to 'use my power to help the sick to the best of my ability and judgment' as an imperative to do everything for the patient regardless of cost or effect on others."

Read the rest here

House Democrats Give Senate Nuclear Option on Pro-Abortion Health Care Bills

House Democrats appear to have given the Senate the go-ahead to use a controversial process called reconciliation to railroad the pro-abortion health care bill through the chamber. Abortion advocates may use a process called reconciliation to get around a potential filibuster.

With the health care bills in Congress having the potential to increase the number of abortions by one-third, making sure they are amended to prevent abortion funding is crucial.

story here

cross-posted from A Catholic View

Tax Dollars Shouldn't Fund Abortion

By CHARMAINE YOEST


The debate over health-care reform is now entering a new phase. This week, the Senate Finance Committee voted for Sen. Max Baucus's health-care bill, which sets up a possible Senate vote on the legislation later this month. Aggressive negotiations are underway on how to handle abortion funding.

Democratic leaders claim that all they want is to maintain the "status quo" on abortion. In reality, maintaining what we have now isn't even on the table. To do that, a health-care bill would have to explicitly prevent federal dollars from being used for elective abortions. Provisions that would have done that were killed by all five committees that have handled health-care reform bills this year. Instead, the abortion compromise in the works is a provision modeled on an amendment Rep. Lois Capps (D., Calif.) added to the House bill. Read the entire op-ed here.

Bishops’ conference fires back at White House press secretary, denounces Senate Finance Committee bill

Three officials of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) criticized the $829-billion health care reform legislation approved by the Senate Finance Committee on October 13 in a 14-9 vote. Conference officials note that the legislation does not contain “policies against abortion funding and in support of conscience rights,” does not extend health care benefits to legal immigrants, and does not in their judgment meet the test of making health care “affordable and available to the poor and vulnerable.”

“Time is running short and if the provisions are not fixed, the bishops have been clear that they will have no choice but to oppose a final bill,” said Kathy Saile, director of the USCCB Office of Domestic Social Development. “The stated purpose of pursuing health care reform was to provide those without health care coverage access to quality and affordable health care. There is real doubt that this bill will achieve that goal.”

story here

cross-posted from A Catholic View

Don't Be Fooled...

Robert Reich- Adviser to President Obama.

Terry Jeffrey : You Will Get Health Insurance at DMV -- Literally (It's in the Bill) - Townhall.com

Terry Jeffrey : You Will Get Health Insurance at DMV -- Literally (It's in the Bill) - Townhall.com: "This is no joke. If this bill becomes law, it will be the duty of the U.S. secretary of health and human services or the state governments overseeing federally mandated health-insurance exchanges to ensure that you can get your health insurance at the DMV.

You will also be able to get it at Social Security offices, hospitals, schools and 'other offices' the government will name later."

Oh Goody- because what American doesn't look forward to the long lines and take-a-number approach at the local DMV!!

Sick of the Health Care Debate

By Klaus Rohrich  
 
For all those people wanting the United States government to provide them with “public option” healthcare, be careful what you wish for; you just might get it.  America isn’t the first nation that’s been seduced by the siren call of publicly funded healthcare.  In fact, the U.S. is one of the few civilized nations left on earth that doesn’t have a public healthcare system—for good reason.

All the objections raised by foes of a public, government-run healthcare program are more than valid in that their predictions have come to fruition in nations where publicly funded healthcare is the norm.  The talk about rationing?  It exists in most nations with a public healthcare system, leaving those covered at the mercy of bureaucrats.  The biggest and simplest difference between the current system within the U.S. and those countries where healthcare is a government responsibility is that under the current American system the patient is a customer, while under publicly funded healthcare the patient is an expense.

Going on the experience of the Canadian healthcare system, with which I am intimately familiar, I can only say that all publicly funded healthcare systems eventually degenerate into bureaucratic quagmires in which the patient and the doctor take a back seat to the bureaucrat.  In the 25 years since the enactment of the Canada Health Act, which essentially made healthcare in Canada “free”, the quality of care and the outcome of treatment have steadily declined.

In order to curtail costs governments have resorted to limiting enrollment in medical schools, creating a shortage of primary care physicians.  And like Obama and the Democrats, successive provincial governments have vilified doctors as being greedy in order to gain support from the tax drones paying for the system.

Prior to enactment of the Canada Health Act, Canada had a perfectly functioning healthcare system, most of which was covered by government insurance.  The crucial difference is that under the old system, participation was not mandatory and doctors as well as patients could choose to opt out of public healthcare.  Once “free” healthcare became the law of the land, doctors became civil servants and many chose to emigrate to the US, as they realized that government mandated “free” healthcare was neither free, nor particularly healthy. Read the rest here.

Planned Parenthood closing shows why PP is pushing nationalized healthcare

From KFBB in MT, October 12:


One of the state's 5 Planned Parenthood clinics is closing its doors for good. The announcement came today, as officials say the Kalispell clinic will shut down, due to a decline in patients.

The clinic plans to close on November 20th. Officials say the decision is purely financial, as the Flathead area has been hit especially hard during the economic downturn.

Stacy James of PP of MT says the people are losing their health insurance, postponing care, and turning to public clinics....

Read the entire story here.

Obama IN HIS OWN WORDS: His Health Care Plan will ELIMINATE private insurance

Senate Finance Committee Passes Health Reform Bill

Democratic Senator Max Baucus' Senate Finance Committee Passes Health Reform Bill:

Senate Finance Committee Approves Health Care Bill

Senate Finance Committee Approves Health Care Bill

Health care reform cleared a momentous hurdle Tuesday, as the Senate Finance Committee voted to send its version of the legislation to the Senate floor after months of closely watched deliberations.

The committee voted 14-9 in favor of the package. One Republican, Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe, broke with her party to support the bill. All 13 Democrats on the panel voted in favor of it, while the rest of the Republicans opposed it.

The panel was the last of five to act on health legislation, and the vote marked the biggest advance so far toward health care reform, as the committee's legislation is considered the best building block for a compromise plan in the full Senate.

story here

White House spokesman: Catholic bishops fail to understand law on federal funding of abortion

This is getting frustrating. Both the president and his spokesman are lying through their teeth trying to pretend that government-run healthcare won't include abortion. Yes, it WILL include abortion. And just when our Bishops are doing the right thing by opposing it, Gibbs is trying to pretend that they don't understand it.

Twice last week White House spokesman Robert Gibbs stated that federally funded abortions will not be included in the government's health care reform due to the Hyde Amendment, a statement which is in direct opposition to two recent letters sent to Congress by the U.S. Catholic bishops.

CNA reported that last Wednesday, Gibbs claimed that the Hyde Amendment will also apply to health care reform legislation. The Hyde Amendment, named after the late pro-life advocate Henry Hyde (R-Ill.), prevents federal funds that are appropriated through the annual Health and Human Services appropriation bill from paying for abortions.

Gibbs' first assertion that abortions will not be paid for with taxpayer funds in the new health care reform bill came last Wednesday at press briefing at the White House. The White House spokesman had said at the time, “there’s a fairly well documented federal law that prevents it.”. Too bad that the Hyde amendment doesn't apply to the funds used for government-run healthcare.

story here

cross-posted from A Catholic View


Associated Press Again Confirms Health Care Bills Include Abortion Funding

The Stressed German Model

It took the Germans 125 years to figure out that their health-care system doesn't work.

What if the Obama health-care proposal turned out to be the biggest public-policy mistake in 125 years?

Read the entire op-ed at The Wall Street Journal.

Pro-Life Democrat Promises No Health Care Bill if Pelosi Blocks Abortion Vote

Stupak has been awesome in trying to keep abortion out of government-run healthcare.

The leading pro-life Democrat in the House has again renewed his pledge to stop the pro-abortion health care bills if House Speaker Nancy Pelosi won't allow an amendment to revoke abortion funding. Rep. Bart Stupak of Michigan has repeatedly said as many as 40 pro-life and moderate Democrats could walk.

“There are many of us Democrats in the House who are philosophically, legally, and morally opposed to public funding for abortions,” Stupak told CNS News today.

“If our amendment is not made in order we will try to shut down the rule, preventing the health care bill from coming to the floor for a vote,” Stupak added.

He said he and a large coalition of pro-life Democrats and Republicans want a chance to vote on an amendment to remove the massive abortion subsidies and mandates found in the current bill, HR 3200.

story here

cross-posted from A Catholic View

Associated Press Again Confirms Health Care Bills Include Abortion Funding

The Associated Press has confirmed again that the current health care reform bills in Congress include massive abortion funding and mandates. Top Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs may want to read the article because he wrongly told reporters twice last week that the Hyde Amendment stop the funding.

In a new analysis of the health care bills written by AP reporter Charles Babington, the news service answers the question, "Would new health care legislation allow abortions to be funded with tax money?"

"The proposed legislation would permit government-sponsored health plans, open to non-Medicaid patients, to cover abortions," Babington writes.

"In seeking a political compromise, a House version would require publicly sponsored plans to pay for abortions," and that the money could come from "customers' premiums."

story here

cross-posted from A Catholic View