Democrats Outline Two-Step Method: New Approach to Pro-Abortion Health Care

They are determined to ram this immoral and unjust legislation down our throats!

In response to President Barack Obama's State of the Union address Wednesday night, top Democrats today outlined a new two-step approach to approving a government-run health care bill. The hope to approve smaller bills that are more popular and then move to the massive pro-abortion bill.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid promised today that Congress will approve a health care bill while Speaker Nancy Pelosi outlined the two-step plan.

Pelosi said Congress "must take whatever time it takes" but explained how the House and Senate would likely tackle smaller bills to promote parts of the government-run health care bill.

The bills themselves could come packed with abortion funding if language similar to the Hyde or Stupak Amendment is not included.

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US bishops: Enact genuine health reform, oppose current language on abortion, conscience protection

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is urging members of Congress to “come together and recommit themselves to enact genuine health care reform that will protect the life, dignity, consciences and health of all.”

“The health care debate, with all its political and ideological conflict, seems to have lost its central moral focus and policy priority, which is to ensure that affordable, quality, life-giving care is available to all,” the bishops write. “Now is not the time to abandon this task, but rather to set aside partisan divisions and special interest pressures to find ways to enact genuine reform.”

“The U.S. Catholic bishops continue to urge the House and Senate to adopt legislation that ensures access to quality, affordable, life giving health care for all; retains longstanding requirements that federal funds not be used for elective abortions or plans that include them, and effectively protects conscience rights; and, protects the access to health care that immigrants currently have and removes current barriers to access.”
The bishops reiterated their serious concerns about the health care legislation that has been passed by the House and Senate.

Disappointingly, the Senate-passed bill in particular does not meet our moral criteria on life and conscience. Specifically, it violates the longstanding federal policy against the use of federal funds for elective abortions and health plans that include such abortions -- a policy upheld in all health programs covered by the Hyde Amendment as well as in the Children’s Health Insurance Program, the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, and now in the House-passed “Affordable Health Care for America Act.” We believe legislation that fails to comply with this policy and precedent is not true health care reform and should be opposed until this fundamental problem is remedied.

The bill passed by the House (and to a lesser extent the Senate-passed bill) recognizes the need to protect conscience rights on abortion. However, provisions in both bills pose a threat to conscience that is not limited to abortion. That threat needs to be removed before any final bill is passed.

The January 26 letter was written by Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities; Bishop William Murphy of Rockville Centre, chairman of the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development; and Bishop John Wester of Salt Lake City, chairman of the Committee on Migration.

• Letter to Congress (USCCB) 

~ Via CWN.

Rep. Pence: Abortion language helped cripple Senate health care bill

Following Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) statement that she didn’t think it's possible to pass the Senate version of the health care bill in the House, Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) said that the pro-abortion language in the bill played a “critical role” in its demise.

During an interview with Cybercast News at last Friday’s March for Life in Washington D.C., Rep. Pence credited “the pro-life Republicans and Democrats who took a stand in the House of Representatives on the traditional language that was encompassed first in the Hyde Amendment and then in the Stupak-Pitts Amendment,” noting that their work contributed immensely to the current situation of health care reform.

Unlike the House version of the health care bill, which included Hyde amendment restrictions on the federal funding of abortion in the Stupak-Pitts amendment, the Senate version mandated all federally funded health insurance policies to have one option that included abortion.

The Senate bill also included what Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius called an “accounting procedure” that earmarked a portion of every premium in the health care exchange for a fund that would pay for abortions.

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Pelosi: House Doesn't Have Votes for Pro-Abortion Senate Health Care Bill

Excellent news

Two days after voters in the liberal state of Massachusetts sent a message to Congress that even they don't want the pro-abortion health care bill, the House and Senate bills appear unlikely to go anywhere. Though no official decision has been made, Democrats and Obama officials are looking at starting over.

The Senate had approved a bill that would force taxpayers to finance abortions and that measure was expected to be the basis of a merged bill.

That was before Republican Senate candidate Scott Brown defeated pro-abortion stalwart Martha Coakley in a special election in Massachusetts.

Now, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi concedes the bill is apparently dead.

"I don't see the votes for it at this time," Pelosi told reporters during her weekly press conference. "The members have been very clear." Duh! You finally realize this? Did you not hear all the town halls this past summer and the polls since then? We DON'T want socialized healthcare!

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A Prayer for the Conversion of a Wayward Nation

In January 2008, one of our Agnesian sisters asked me to write a prayer to be read aloud outside a Planned Parenthood office here in Hays, Kansas. As I did last year, I offer this prayer to my countrymen for the conversion of its all-too-worldly people. Feel free to pass it on. And may God have mercy on our souls. --JFB


Almighty God,

We pause here to remember the uncounted victims of a misguided society: women, confused and frightened, who were led to believe problems would be solved by ending their pregnancies; the unborn children who died as a result; couples whose wonderful potential to foster new life has been stifled. Enlighten those who pervert the healing arts, that they might see the destruction they have wrought. Edify those who reduce unborn children to mere abstractions. Lead our citizens, courts and governments to understand that everyone has a right to live, regardless of age, ability, health or social circumstance.

Bless our youngsters, that they might appreciate their bodies, value chastity and understand the true purpose of sexuality.

Allay the fears of new parents. Encourage them, that they might treasure the lives they've brought into the world, trust in your providence and embrace the call to parenthood. May they understand that children are unrepeatable gifts, no matter the circumstances of their conception.

Grant that society will once again respect marriage as the insoluble union which brings forth the family and recognize the family as the very foundation upon which society itself rests. Dispel the selfishness that regards fertility as a malady and pregnancy as a disease, that couples might cherish procreation as a blessing and bring ever more life into the world.

Console those parents who once chose abortion and now regret their decision; may their grief turn to action and their suffering to resolve in testament to the Truth.

Strengthen with love all who seek You, that we might embrace our calling to be light amid the darkness and, so, transform America, that she might truly become a nation under You, oh Lord, with liberty and justice for all.

Saint Gianna Molla, who gave up her life that her unborn daughter might live, pray for us!

Saint Maximilian Kolbe, martyr of an earlier holocaust, pray for us!

Saint Michael, the Archangel, defend us in battle!

Amen.

Democrats May Look to House to OK Pro-Abortion Health Care Bill if Brown Wins

Republican Senate candidate Scott Brown is leading in polls and if they hold up on Tuesday in the Massachusetts special election, he would become the 41st vote against the pro-abortion health care bill in the Senate. That is confounding efforts by President Barack Obama and Democrats to get the bill passed.

Brown faces pro-abortion Democrat Martha Coakley in a race to replace the late pro-abortion Sen. Ted Kennedy.

The outcome of the election has a significant bearing on the health care-abortion debate because the Senate approved its bill on a narrow 60-40 margin. Should Brown win, he has already promised to support the filibuster against the measure.

Democrats and Obama have been finalizing a compromise version of the legislation that would still require 60 votes in the Senate and a Brown win would drop the margin to 59-41 -- enough to defeat the bill.

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