Abortion: Senate Health Care Bill

From the Washington Examiner:

A pep talk by President Obama wasn't enough to give Senate Democrats the votes they needed to pass a massive health care overhaul, but a Monday vote on abortion funding could determine whether the legislation survives.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the chamber would take up an amendment by Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., that would strictly prohibit taxpayer money from being spent on abortion.

"I want to get it out of the way," Reid said. "I think we all do."

But the amendment could ultimately stand in the way of the bill's final passage, no matter what the outcome of the Monday vote.

The decision on the abortion amendment will be a decisive moment. If it fails, anti-abortion Democrats including Nelson and Sen. Robert Casey, D-Pa., may vote against the final bill. But if the amendment passes, the party's many senators who support abortion access, such as Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., could walk away.

Wisconsin Right to Life weighs in on the abortion amendment:

Right-to-life Senators Ben Nelson (D-Ne.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) will be filing an amendment to the bill to prevent the new government health insurance program - the public option - from paying for abortions, and also to prevent federal funds from being used to subsidize the purchase of private health plans that pay for elective abortion. The Nelson-Hatch Amendment would make the same policy changes to the Senate bill that were made through the Stupak-Pitts Amendment to the House version of health care legislation. (H.R. 3962) on November 2. Wisconsin Right to Life strongly supports both of these amendments.

Nothing in the Stupak-Pitts Amendment or the Nelson-Hatch Amendment would prevent women from securing insurance coverage for abortions as long as no government funds were involved.

Wisconsin Right to Life has been urging their members and supporters from throughout Wisconsin to contact Senators Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold in support of the Nelson/Hatch Amendment. Senator Kohl's office can be reached at 202-224-5653. Senator Feingold's office can be reached at 202-224-5323

Richard Doerflinger, associate director of the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), said Reid's bill "is actually the worst bill we've seen so far on the the life issues." Doerflinger called Reid's bill "completely unacceptable."

"President Obama is committed to maintaining government funding of abortion in health care reform legislation," said Susan Armacost, Legislative Director for Wisconsin Right to Life.

On July 17, 2007, during Barack Obama's campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, he appeared before the annual conference of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund and said, "in my mind, reproductive care is essential care. It is basic care, and so it is at the center and at the heart of the plan that I propose." Obama went on to say that, "What we're doing is to say that we're going to set up a public plan that all persons and all women can access if they don't have health insurance. It'll be a plan that will provide all essential services, including reproductive services."

Obama has expressed opposition to the Stupak-Pitts Amendment in a number of media interviews and the White House staff is actively working against right-to-life amendments on Capitol Hill.

"Thousands of right-to-life supporters throughout the state are sending Senators Kohl and Feingold the message that they want their senators to support the Nelson/Hatch Amendment" said Armacost. "All of us will be watching closely as the Senate votes on this critical issue."

Of course, we know that Russ Feingold is as radical as Obama when it comes to killing babies. Feingold is a pro-abortion crusader. Herb Kohl, however, tries to pose as being a bit more moderate on the issue.

Still, it was a surprise when Kohl promised to vote AGAINST abortion in health care.

From LifeSiteNews:

The upcoming Senate vote on the pro-life Hatch-Nelson amendment to the health care bill has been called into question as an audio recording has surfaced with a Senator with a 100% rating from the pro-abortion group NARAL Pro-Choice America vowing to vote against abortion in the health care bill. The vote is expected as early as Monday, December 7, 2009.

In a recorded, and publicly available Q&A, Wisconsin Senator Herb Kohl can be heard promising (at 52 min. of 60 min. full recording) to vote against abortion in the health care bill (Hear excerpted 2 minute portion on the abortion question in mp3 format or wma format). See Marquette's video of the talk.

Given his NARAL rating, many assumed that Kohl would be a natural to oppose the amendment, but his strong statement against abortion funding in the health care bill made in September has called his vote into question and may call into question his vote and the votes of other thought to be solidly pro-abortion Senators.

On September 2, 2009 at Marquette University Law School's "On the Issues with Mike Gousha," Kohl responded to a Marquette alumnus who asked him directly if he would vote against abortion in the health care bill, Kohl responded, "categorically yes".

Dan Zeidler, a 1969 Marquette grad and pro-life activist asked Senator Kohl: "I do not want health care to be used as a vehicle to expand abortion access. lt is very clear, very clear, that many in the congress want to do that, many from your party. Will you vote against any abortion mandates? Will you explicitly exclude them from any health care reform bill?"

Kohl responded: "I want to say, but it's complicated, but I want to say categorically yes. I agree with you. We should not be using health care reform to provide government access to abortion. I hear what you say. And I would hope that people from whatever party won't try and go down that road and put into a bill in the dead of night and then, lo and behold, wake up the next morning and something that shouldn't have happened did happen. We should not do that."

Zeidler is also heard asking to work with Kohl on the matter, (see Fax and later open letter ) to which Kohl readily agreed. Zeidler has not however been able to reach Kohl since to pursue the matter. He has thus released his correspondence with the Senator as well as pointing to the publicly available recording.

What will Kohl do?

Will he break his promise to prevent the federal funding of abortion via health care reform?

I think that's likely.

If Kohl does vote in favor of a bill that provides for government access to abortion, we'll know that either Kohl is a liar or he doesn't understand the meaning of the word "yes."