national RIGHT TO LIFE committee, inc. Health Care Legislation Information Packet

Transcription

1 national RIGHT TO LIFE committee, inc. Health Care Legislation Information Packet

2 Contents pages 1-4 pages 5-6 pages 7-17 page 18 pages pages pages page 32 (pages 33) NRL News Article Douglas Johnson Chris Smith Letter July 9, 2009 Fact Sheet: Abortion & Health Care Key Talking Points on Abortion in Obama-Backed Health Care Bills Action Points on Rationing & Background Materials Action Items: A To-Do List Action Alert (4 versions) Tea Party Express Schedule District Office Information (State Specific)

3 Complete Coverage of Health Care Reform / 1, 8-9 Mary Ann Glendon to be Honored at Proudly Pro-Life Awards Dinner / Back Cover Justice Loves Babies /18 Your Help is Making Autos for Life a Success /25 NRLC Ensures that Your Voice is Heard /7 Complete Coverage of NRLC 2009 /2, 6, 12-15, 17, 18, 28 New DVD Reveals Infinite Possibilies of Unborn Children / 4 Pro-Life Fundamentals for Winning in 2010 / 27 Purchase CDs from NRLC 2009 / Vol. 36 No. 7-8 A Newspaper Published by the National Right to Life Committee July/August 2009 Congress to Vote in September on Obama-Backed Health Bills That Would Greatly Expand Abortion WASHINGTON (August 6, 2009)-- President Obama and top Democratic congressional leaders are pushing hard for enactment of sweeping health care reform bills that would greatly expand abortion in America. The bills even create a nationwide insurance plan to cover elective abortions, run by the federal government. Both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate are expected to vote on the bills in September. The bills backed by the White House would also make drastic changes in the health care system that raise acute Facing the Challenge of Health Care Rationing By Burke J. Balch, J.D. concerns about future rationing of lifesaving care, and that even open the door to government promotion of assisted suicide. (See related story on rationing issues raised by the bills, on page 1.) National Right to Life President Wanda Franz, Ph.D., said, Defeating the White House bills is among the most important challenges the pro-life movement has faced in Congress in many years. Prolife citizens must make their voices heard by members of Congress, before it is too late. See CONGRESS, page 10 Every Pro-Life American Must Tell Congress Now: Vote against any health care bill that does not explicitly exclude abortion! Health care bills in Congress could create the greatest expansion of abortion since Roe v. Wade. 1. now: Go to Follow the simple directions at the bottom of the web page to send urgent messages to your U.S. senators and your U.S. House member. (Messages can be altered if you wish.) 2. now: Copy this entire alert into a new . it to all your pro-life friends and relatives. 3. Copy & Distribute: Pass this alert out at pro-life churches and meetings. 4. Make Personal Contact with Your Senators and Congressmen: Use every opportunity: office meetings,fairs, town meetings, and other public events. 5. Telephone: Call the offices of your two U.S. senators and your U.S. House member (through the Senate switchboard: and the House switchboard, ). Give your zip code and you will be connected to the correct offices. With Congress preparing for floor votes on health care restructuring this fall, we must guard against the grave danger of rationing lifesaving medical treatment, food, and fluids. Since its inception, the pro-life movement has been just as committed to protecting older people and people with disabilities from euthanasia as to protecting unborn children from abortion. We have long recognized that denial of treatment, food, and fluids necessary to sustain life against the will of the patient is a form of involuntary euthanasia, and thus have fought to protect the vulnerable from rationing of health care, whether by health care providers such as hospital ethics committees or by the government. All versions of the health care restructuring bill provide for premium subsidies to help the uninsured obtain health insurance. The problem is that the proposals under serious consideration to date fail to ensure a sustainable method of financing these subsidies (see NRLC s webinar at com/2009/06/13/hcrwebinar/ and also describeplan.html). Indeed, a substantial See RATIONING, page 8 Give the senator s or representive s staff your name and address and tell them to relay a message: I urge you to oppose Senator Kennedy s health care bill (for Senate staff), or the House Democratic Leadership health care bill, H.R (for House staff), because it would result in coverage of elective abortion in a new nationwide public option health insurance plan, and would allow federal subsidies to go to other plans that also cover elective abortions. I STRONGLY URGE YOU TO OPPOSE ANY HEALTH CARE BILL UNLESS ABORTION IS EXPLICITLY EXCLUDED! Check for updates at When contacting legislators be sure to include the rationing talking points found on page 8.

4 10 July/August 2009 National Right to Life News Congress From page 1 The White House and Democratic congressional leaders had originally planned to hold House and Senate floor votes on the bills during July, but solid opposition from congressional Republicans, coupled with resistance among some factions of Democrats, forced the delay until the fall. Congress is now in recess until after Labor Day. At NRL News deadline on August 6, two health care bills, one in the Senate, and one in the House, both reflecting White House priorities, had gone through the process of revision in Democrat-controlled committees. No Republican has yet endorsed either bill, and no Republican voted for either bill on any of the committees. However, Democrats currently hold majority control of Congress, with 60% of the seats in each house. The Senate bill (as yet unnumbered), sponsored by Senator Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), was approved by the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee on a party-line vote on July 15. In the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca.) and the rest of the Democratic leadership are pushing H.R. 3200, which during July was approved by three different committees. In the Senate HELP Committee, and in all three House committees, pro-life lawmakers offered NRLCbacked amendments to prevent the bills from mandating that insurance plans cover abortions, and to prevent federal subsidies for abortions but in all four committees, the Democratic chairmen succeeded in defeating the genuine pro-life amendments. In the committees, the pro-life amendments won support from nearly all Republicans, but only a handful of Democrats. Broad Abortion Mandates As originally introduced, both the Kennedy bill and H.R had most key elements in common. Under both bills, the federal government would in effect take charge of marketing private health insurance through a so-called exchange. Federal officials would define a package of essential benefits that virtually all private plans must cover in order to participate. The bills describe broad categories of services that must be included, such as hospitalization, outpatient hospital and outpatient clinic services, professional services of physicians, and preventive services. NRLC and other pro-life analysts warned that these broad categories have Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mi.). Opposed bill due to abortion subsidies. been interpreted in the past to include elective abortion, except when Congress explicitly excludes abortion. (That is what occurred, for example, with the federal Medicaid program. Although the law that created the program does not mention abortion, it was interpreted to require coverage of abortion, and by 1976 the federal government was paying for 300,000 elective abortions a year. This was stopped only when Congress added the Hyde Amendment to the annual Health and Human Services funding bill, starting in 1976, explicitly prohibiting the use of federal HHS funds for abortions.) In addition, the Kennedy bill and H.R would create a public option, a nationwide insurance plan operated by the federal government. It would also create a program of premium subsidies to help roughly 27 million Americans purchase health insurance. Pro-life analysts warned that both the government plan and the premium subsidies program would pay for elective abortions unless Congress amended the bills to explicitly exclude abortion. Once abortion is defined as a federal essential benefit, other provisions of the Kennedy bill could require health networks to establish new abortionproviding sites to provide adequate access to abortion, and state laws regulating abortion might be declared invalid. The HELP committee rejected several NRLC-backed amendments to the bill, including an amendment offered by Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wy.) to remove any authority to declare abortion to be an essential benefit, and an amendment by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) to prevent federal funds from being used to subsidize abortion or plans that include abortion. The HELP Committee even voted down an amendment offered by prolife Senator Tom Coburn (R-Ok.) to prevent health care providers from being penalized for refusing to participate in providing abortions. The Kennedy bill would result in the greatest expansion of abortion since Roe v. Wade, said NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson. It would result in federally mandated coverage of abortion by nearly all health plans, federally mandated recruitment of abortionists by local health networks, and nullification of many state abortion laws. It would also result in federal funding of abortion on a massive scale. Although all of the pro-life amendments were defeated in the HELP Committee, it is not yet entirely certain what bill language will be brought to the Senate floor in September. For months, key members of the Senate Finance Committee, of both parties, have been meeting behind closed doors, trying to craft a more centrist alternative to the Kennedy bill. It remains unclear whether these negotiations will ultimately produce a bill that will draw some Republican support, or how it will handle abortion-related issues. The chairman of the Finance Committee, pro-abortion Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mt.), was quoted in the August 6 Washington Post as saying that there are active discussions underway with all sides to try to put something together that would be acceptable. Two of the key Republicans who are conducting the negotiations with Baucus, Senator Charles Grassley (R- Iowa) and Senator Mike Enzi (R-Wy.), have strong pro-life records. Capps Amendment When pro-abortion forces face risk of defeat in Congress, they commonly put forward a phony compromise, a term used by pro-life lawmakers to refer to language that incorporates a proabortion policy goal but disguises it with language that is cosmetically pro-life. Pro-life groups knew the pro-abortion side was preparing a phony compromise on July 21, when Congressman Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) sent Speaker Pelosi a letter calling for a common ground solution on the issue of abortion in health care reform. Ryan, who has not cast a pro-life vote since 2006, impersonates a pro-life lawmaker, but in reality he is an active agent of pro-abortion activists at groups such as Planned Parenthood and Third Way, explained NRLC s Johnson. When Tim Ryan calls for common ground, you know he has a memo from Planned Parenthood in his pocket. Four other House Democrats cosigned Ryan s letter one of whom, Rep. Kendrick Meek (Fl.), has never cast a single anti-abortion vote during his entire congressional career. Just a few days earlier, Meek had voted against pro-life amendments to the health care bill in committee. When the House Energy and Commerce Committee met to amend H.R on July 30, the phony compromise amendment was offered by Rep. Lois Capps (D-Ca.), who has voted proabortion 100 percent of the time during her 11 years in the House but prolife observers say that it was actually crafted by veteran staffers to committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Ca.), one of the House s most tenacious defenders of abortion. See CONGRESS, page 11

5 Congress From page 10 National Right to Life News July/August The Capps Amendment was strongly opposed by NRLC, but was adopted by the pro-abortion majority on the committee, over the no votes of the committee s Republicans and six Democrats. Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), co-chairman of the House Pro-life Caucus, said of the Capps Amendment, It s one of the most deceptive amendments I have ever seen. The bottom line is that money Rep. Lois Capps (D-Ca.), 100 percent pro-abortion record. is fungible, and the plan itself will be subsidizing abortion-on-demand, with taxpayer funding commingled, and the numbers of abortions will go up significantly. Unlike the Kennedy bill, the Capps Amendment says that private health plans would not be required to cover elective abortions. But it would create a new nationwide government-run insurance plan (called the public option ), and authorize the Secretary of Health and Human Services to cover all abortions under that plan. In addition, the language would create a new program to provide federal subsidies to over 27 million Americans to help them purchase health insurance, and plans (either private plans or the new federal public plan) that cover abortion would be eligible for these subsidies. The Capps language says that the amount of money spent for abortions would be counted against funds obtained from private premiums a device denounced by pro-life analysts as a bookkeeping sham. H.R would drastically change longstanding federal policy, said NRLC s Johnson. The bill creates a nationwide insurance plan run by the federal government, and the language explicitly authorizes this plan to cover all abortions. If this passes, the federal government would be running a nationwide abortion plan. Abortionists would send bills to the federal insurance plan and receive payment checks from the federal Treasury. It is a fiction, a sham, and a political ploy to pretend that this scheme does not constitute federal subsidies for abortion. On the committee, Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mi.) and Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Pa.) jointly offered a genuine pro-life amendment to prohibit federal funds from flowing to any plan that covers abortion, except to save the life of the mother, or in cases of rape or incest. But the amendment failed, Five Democrats on the committee ended up voting against H.R. 3200, of whom two, Stupak and Rep. Charles Melancon (La.), cited pro-life objections. All of the committee s Republicans voted against the bill. Nevertheless, H.R passed out of the committee favorably, On July 29, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) sent a letter to members of the committee, warning that H.R contained provisions that would constitute a radical change from past federal policy on abortion, and open the door to federal funding of abortion. The letter urged committee members to adopt pro-life amendments to correct the problem. Following the completion of committee action, USCCB official Richard Doerflinger denounced the Capps Amendment, calling its purported separation of private premiums and federal subsidies a legal fiction. Under the Capps language, the public plan must include abortions for any reason if the HHS Secretary (who supports publicly funded abortion) says so, Doerflinger said. This would be an enormous imposition on the working poor who may find the public plan to be the only one they can afford. Whether you call it federal funds or private premiums, they would be forced to pay for abortions they don t want and may find abhorrent. Next Steps in House? Speaker Pelosi and other Democratic leaders have the power to make further changes in the legislation before they bring it to the floor in September. The House Rules Committee, an arm of the House Democratic leadership, will issue a list of amendments that can be considered on the House floor. However, this list must be agreed to by the full House through adoption of a resolution, called the rule, before the bill itself can be taken up. Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Oh.), impersonates pro-life lawmaker. Stupak said that he will seek permission from the Rules Committee to offer his anti-abortion-funding amendment on the House floor, and that if permission is denied, he will vote against the rule and urge other pro-life Democrats to join him. Stupak told CBS News he believes a minimum of 39 Democrats would join him in voting to block the bill if it does not contain satisfactory abortion language. Pro-life observers think that the Rules Committee is likely to refuse to allow a vote on Stupak s amendment on the House floor. A spokesman for the Rules Committee chair, Rep. Louise M. Slaughter (D-N.Y.), said, The starting point for Rep. Slaughter on the healthcare debate was protecting abortion rights. (Los Angeles Times, July 28) On June 25, Rep. Dan Boren (D-Ok.), Stupak, and 18 other House Democrats sent Speaker Pelosi a letter in which they said, We cannot support any health care reform proposal unless it explicitly excludes abortion from the scope of any government-defined or subsidized health insurance plan. Obama Role On July 17, 2007, Barack Obama then seeking the Democratic presidential nomination appeared before the annual conference of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. Speaking of his plans for health care reform, Obama said, in my mind, reproductive care is essential care, basic care, so it is at the center, the heart of the plan that I propose. Under his plan, Obama explained, people could choose to keep their existing private health care plans, but insurers are going to have to abide by the same rules in terms of providing comprehensive care, including reproductive care... that s going to be absolutely vital. In recent months, however, Obama and his appointees have tried to deflect public attention away from these proabortion goals. Katie Couric of CBS, in an interview broadcast July 21, asked Obama directly, Do you favor a government option that would cover abortions? Obama responded, What I think is important, at this stage, is not trying to micromanage what benefits are covered.... As you know, I m pro-choice. But I think we also have a tradition of, in this town, historically, of not financing abortions as part of government funded health care. NRLC s Johnson criticized those including Chris Korzen, executive director of the pro-obama group See CONGRESS, page 26

6 26 July/August 2009 National Right to Life News Congress From page 11 Catholics United, and Associated Press reporter Charles Babington who falsely reported that Obama had endorsed a policy against financing abortions in the exchange with Couric. Obama knows very well that abortion will be covered unless Congress explicitly excludes abortion, so his micromanage comment was actually a swipe against what the pro-life lawmakers are trying to do, Johnson said. Obama s remark about tradition was an exercise in artful misdirection he simply observed that there is a longstanding policy against federal funding of abortion, but he certainly did not endorse it and in fact, he has opposed limits on public funding of abortion throughout his political career. In mid-july, Tina Tchen, director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, attended the Planned Parenthood Organizing and Policy Summit, a gathering of more than 400 pro-abortion activists. Tchen urged the participants to get back into campaign mode and stir up grassroots activity to keep Congress from removing basic reproductive health services from the pending bills, according to a report of the meeting that appeared on the proabortion website RHRealityCheck. org. Keep up on the current status of the fight over abortion in the Obama health bills: Obtain key documentation on the abortion mandates and abortion subsidies in the Obama health care reform bills: Pro-Abortion Groups Gear Up For months, leaders of major proabortion groups, when speaking to their own backers, have emphasized the potential of the health care legislation to greatly expand access to abortion and government subsidies for abortion. For example, in an April interview on National Public Radio, Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said that the health care legislation would be a platform to provide abortion access to all women. The National Abortion Federation, an association of abortion providers, said, NAF supports health care reform as a way to increase access to comprehensive reproductive health care, including abortion care, for all women. However, in July, as the abortionrelated aspects of the issue became a hot issue in Congress, some of the same pro-abortion groups began telling the news media and lawmakers that the pro-life side was promoting myths when they warned that the bills would expand abortion. Most of the pro-abortion groups have been talking out of both sides of their mouths on these bills, but in recent weeks we have been able to get more and more people to recognize what they are trying to do, said NRLC s Johnson. Action Needed Now To read what you can do to prevent enactment of the expansive proabortion legislation discussed above, see the Action Alert on the back cover. For updates on the legislative situation, check in frequently at www. nrlactioncenter.com For additional documentation and background information on this issue, go to html Visit our NRL Web Site Your Place to Find: How You Can Help Stop Obama s Abortion Agenda; The Daily Feature Today s News and Views; The Latest Developments on All the Pro-Life Issues. Click On Us Today! Have you bookedmarked yet? Visit daily for the latest pro-life news and to find out how you can help de-rail the pro-abortion agenda. Get downloadable information and leave comments to share with us and with pro-lifers across the country. Find Stop the Abortion Agenda on Facebook also!

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9 WHA T DO THE "HEAL TH CARE REFORM" BILLS BACKED BY PRESIDENT ORAMA HA YE TO DO WITH ABORTION? August 13, 2009 For further information: National Right to Life Committee Federal Legislation Legfederal@aol.com Department Shortly after Labor Day, the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate are expected to vote on "health care reform" bills being pushed by President Obama and by tqp Democratic congressional leaders, including pro-abortion House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca.). Pro-abortion advocacy groups view health care reform as a vehicle for greatly expanding "access" to abortion, using the structure and resources of the federal government.l Indeed, enactment of the Obamabacked legislation could produce the greatest expansion of abortion since Roe v. Wade. The Obama-backed bills -H.R in the House of Representatives, and the " Affordable Health Choices Act" (as yet unnumbered) sponsored by Senator Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) in the Senate -would create a new government-operated nationwide insurance plan (the "public plan" or "public option") that would cover all abortions. Some analysts have estimated that this government-run plan might enroll up to 103 million Americans. In addition, both bills provide massive federal subsidies that will flow to insurance plans (both public and private) that cover elective abortion. Other provisions of the two bills could result in federal administrative directives requiring the establishment of new abortion facilities to provide access to elective abortion in regions which currently lack abortion providers (this is referred to by pro-life analysts as the "abortion clinic mandate"). The Kennedy bill also contains language that could result in regulatory invalidation of many state laws regulating abortion. In summary, enactment of the Obama-backed legislation I In Apri12009, on NPR, the president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America said that her organization intends to use the health care legislation as a "platform" to guarantee access to abortion to "all women." Leaders of other pro-abortion groups have made similar statements. See AHC/2009July9SmithDearColleague. pdf

10 NAT. RIGHT TO LIFE, ABORTION IN HEALTH BILLS, 2 would effectively reverse longstanding federal policy against government promotion of abortion, and would result in a substantial increase in the number of abortions performed in America. The House Democratic Leadership intends to merge the versions of H.R approved by the three House committees of jurisdiction into one bill, perhaps with further changes, and bring it to the House floor for a vote shortly after Labor Day. In the Senate, the Kennedy bill will be merged with a second bill that is still behind written, behind closed doors, by members of the Senate Finance Committee, and the resulting base bill could be brought to the Senate floor by late September. To read a more detailed account of the recent actions in the U.S. Congress and the next steps expected, go to and GOVERNMENT-RUN PUBLIC PLAN TO COVER ELECTIVE ABORTION Both H.R and the Kennedy bill establish a new nationwide government-run insurance plan that is commonly referred to as the public option or public plan. This new public plan will compete against private insurance plans within the framework of a broader governmentestablished marketplace for insurance (the Exchange in H.R. 3200, and state Gateways in the Senate Kennedy bill). The public plan will be entirely run by the federal government. Senate: Senator Kennedy s Bill and the Public Plan Under the Kennedy bill (as yet unnumbered) approved by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee on July 15, 2009, the public plan will have to provide coverage for the essential health care benefits. Although the bill empowers the Secretary of Health and Human Services to fill in certain details of the package, pro-life legal analysts agree that there is no doubt that elective abortion will be declared to be one of these essential benefits. 2 For one thing, that is the only result consistent with Barack Obama s record as a legislator and as a 2 Moreover, in an interview released on July 7, 2009, Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL, said, if, indeed, we can advance a panel or commission, then I am very optimistic about reproductive health care being part of this entire package. (The American Prospect, Dana Goldstein, July 7, 2009)

11 NAT. RIGHT TO LIFE, ABORTION IN HEALTH BILLS, 3 candidate for president. 3 4 Moreover, based on prior administrative and legal interpretations of federal law, unless an abortion exclusion is explicitly written into the bill, abortion coverage will be required as an essential benefit if not by administrators, then by the federal courts. For example, when the federal Medicaid statute was passed, the law did not mention abortion, but it was interpreted to require coverage of any abortion sought by a Medicaid-eligible woman. As the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals explained it: Because abortion fits within many of the mandatory care categories, including family planning, outpatient services, inpatient services, and physicians services, Medicaid covered medically necessary abortions between 1973 and [Planned Parenthood Affiliates of Michigan v. Engler, 73 F.3d 634, 636 (6th Cir. 1996)]. (Note: With respect to abortion, the term medically necessary merely meant that the woman was pregnant and desired an abortion, not that some health-related criteria were involved. 5 ) As a result, by 1976 the federal taxpayer was paying for 300,000 Medicaid abortions 3 Obama has always opposed limits on government funding of abortions, both in the Illinois state Senate and in the U.S. Senate. During his campaign for the presidency, Obama reiterated his consistent opposition to policies restricting government funding of abortion, such as the Hyde Amendment. See, for example, Sen. Barack Obama s RH Issues Questionnaire, December 21, 2007, Obama does not support the Hyde amendment. He believes that the federal government should not use its dollars to intrude on a poor woman's decision whether to carry to term or to terminate her pregnancy and selectively withhold benefits because she seeks to exercise her right of reproductive choice in a manner the government disfavors. 4 On July 17, 2007, Barack Obama appeared before the annual conference of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. Speaking of his plans for health care reform, Obama 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. He stated that, What we're doing is to say that we're gonna 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. Under his plan, Obama explained, people could choose to keep their existing private health care plans, but insurers are going to have to abide by the same rules in terms of providing comprehensive care, including reproductive care... that s going to be absolutely vital. ( According to the Chicago Tribune, the Obama campaign later affirmed that reproductive health services included abortion. (Chicago Tribune, July 18, 2007). Moreover, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testified before a congressional committee on April 22, 2009, Reproductive health includes access to abortion... We are now an Administration that will protect the rights of women, including their rights to reproductive health care. 5 This is well understood by analysts on both sides of abortion policy issues. In 1993, William Hamilton, vice president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, told Knight-Ridder Newspapers that medically necessary abortions include anything a doctor and a woman construe to be in her best interest, whether prenatal care or abortion (Philadelphia Inquirer, Sept. 8, 1993). The National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL) defined medically necessary as a term which generally includes the broadest range of situations for which a state will fund abortion (Who Decides? A Reproductive Rights Issues Manual, 1990). A senior Clinton Administration health

12 NAT. RIGHT TO LIFE, ABORTION IN HEALTH BILLS, 4 per year, until the Congress attached the Hyde Amendment to the annual Health and Human Services funding bill, specifically prohibiting Medicaid funds from being spent for abortion. Likewise, the Kennedy bill describes broad categories of services for which essential benefits must be provided by plans participating in a state marketplace ( Gateway ), including ambulatory patient services, hospitalization, and preventive services. Once abortion is mandated as an essential benefit, the result will be federally mandated coverage of abortion on demand in virtually all of America s health plans (public and private). Preventive services is one of the several categories of services, mandated by the Kennedy bill as essential benefits, that would include elective abortion. 6 Indeed, when a pro-life constituent wrote to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Ca.) to urge that abortion be excluded from the legislation, he received an response dated August 3, 2009, in which Feinstein wrote, Thank you for writing to me to express your support for proposed restrictions on private coverage of preventative services for reproductive care in health reform legislation.... I understand your opinion that private coverage of abortion services should be restricted in health reform. However, I believe that reproductive health services should be treated no differently than any other health care service or benefit. The Senate Kennedy bill will also require plans participating in the new marketplace ( Gateway ) to ensure a wide choice of providers for the services provided. Once abortion is a federally mandated essential benefit, many health insurance issuers will have to take steps, including establishing abortion-providing sites in their service area, to meet this requirement. Pro-life analysts refer to these provisions as an abortion clinic mandate, and the effect will be an increase in the number of abortions performed in America. Mikulski Amendment Planned Parenthood, America s largest abortion provider, wants to make doubly sure that its clinics are among those chosen to fulfill the bill s mandates. The Essential Community Provider provisions in the Kennedy bill are designed to ensure this will happen. These provisions were added by an amendment offered in the HELP Committee by Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) on July 9, During debate on the amendment, Senator Orrin Hatch (R- Utah) asked, Would that include abortion providers... like Planned Parenthood? Senator Mikulski responded, It would include women's health clinics that provide comprehensive official told Congress, When we're talking about medically necessary or appropriate [abortion] services we are also talking about all legal services (Judith Feder, principal deputy assistant secretary for planning and evaluation, Department of Health and Human Services, Jan. 26, 1994). 6 The Kennedy bill explicitly provides that group health plans and health insurance issuers must provide coverage for preventive services rated and recommended by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.

13 NAT. RIGHT TO LIFE, ABORTION IN HEALTH BILLS, 5 services, and... it would include Planned Parenthood clinics.... It doesn t expand... nor mandate an abortion service. Sen. Hatch then said,... but it would provide for them, to which Mikulski answered, It would provide for any service deemed medically necessary or medically appropriate. 7 House Bill: H.R. 3200, the Capps Amendment, and the Public Plan Under the House bill backed by the Obama White House, H.R. 3200, the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services would establish the public plan (using $2 billion provided by the bill), set the premiums, set the payment rates for doctors and providers, and establish conditions for health care providers participation. An account in the U.S. Treasury will be established for the receipts and payments resulting from the operation of the public plan. As introduced, H.R contained broadly worded mandates regarding federally defined essential benefits similar to those found in the Kennedy bill, and it was approved in that form by two House committees. However, a third House committee, the House Energy and Commerce Committee, on July 30, 2009, adopted an amendment that explicitly authorized the public plan to cover all elective abortions, and wrote the word abortion directly into the bill. The amendment was drafted by staff to Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Ca.) and offered by Rep. Lois Capps (D-Ca.), both of whom have 100 percent pro-abortion voting records during their many years in Congress. It was adopted with the votes of all of the pro-abortion members of the committee. NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson explained: H.R would drastically change longstanding federal policy. The bill creates a nationwide insurance plan run by the federal government, and the Capps Amendment explicitly authorizes this plan to cover all elective abortions. This means that any citizen who wants to take advantage of the public plan will be compelled to purchase coverage for abortion on demand. The federal agency will collect the premium money, receive bills from abortionists, and send the abortionists payment checks from the federal Treasury account. It is a sham to pretend that this does not constitute funding of abortion. If this passes, the federal government will be running a nationwide abortionon-demand insurance plan. The premiums for the public plan are expected to be substantially cheaper than those for the private plans, 8 and so the public plan will likely be an attractive option for the poor and many The Lewin Group estimates that premiums for a public plan would be an average of 20 percent less than private insurance premiums for families, and 25 percent less for individuals. [Lewin Group, July 27, 2009, press release. The Lewin Group has been described by the Heritage Foundation as the nation s most prominent health policy econometrics firm. ] The Congressional Budget Office s July 14,

14 NAT. RIGHT TO LIFE, ABORTION IN HEALTH BILLS, 6 other fiscally strapped Americans. Material jointly issued by the three committees of jurisdiction in the House stated that it is their goal to allow all employers access to the Exchange. 9 While there are many conflicting predictions, some analysts have projected that over 100 million Americans would enroll in the public plan once all employers are allowed access to the Exchange. 10 Under H.R. 3200, the public plan s provider network will have to meet standards set by the new Health Choices Commissioner to ensure enrollee access to services (e.g., abortion). Since many communities in America lack an abortion provider, the public plan will have to take whatever steps are necessary, including establishing new abortion sites, in order to meet the standards established by the Commissioner. Opposition to this new government-run public plan covering elective abortions is strong within the pro-life community. Following adoption of the Capps Amendment by the House committee, Richard Doerflinger, associate director of pro-life activities for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), told the AP, We want to see people who have no health insurance get it, but this is a sticking point... We don t want health care reform to be the vehicle for mandating abortion. The AP also reported: The church can t accept a public plan that covers abortion, he [Doerflinger] said. 11 NEW FEDERAL PREMIUM-SUBSIDY PROGRAM WOULD FUND PLANS THAT COVER ALL ELECTIVE ABORTIONS: HYDE AMENDMENT DOES NOT APPLY Both the House and Senate bills provide massive funding for new federal subsidies for individuals and families whose income is too high to qualify for Medicaid/Children s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). 12 Under the House bill, these subsidies phase out at $88,200 income for a family of four (in 2009). These subsidies will be used to pay for health care premiums for either private health insurance plans or the public plan. Neither bill contains any language to prevent these massive amounts of federal dollars from being used to pay for insurance that covers abortion on demand. (As discussed below, the Capps Amendment adopted by pro- 2009, analysis of H.R estimates the public plan would be about 10 percent cheaper than a typical private plan offered in the exchanges. 9 America s Affordable Health Choices Act Section-by-Section Analysis, prepared by Committees on Energy and Commerce, Ways and Means, and Education and Labor, July 14, 2009, p Lewin Group, July 27, 2009, press release. 11 Government insurance would allow coverage for abortion, by Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Associated Press, August 5, The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that over the next ten years H.R will provide $773 billion in new federal subsidies to purchase health care premiums and pay for cost sharing. CBO estimates the subsidies in the Senate Kennedy bill to be $723 billion over ten years.

15 NAT. RIGHT TO LIFE, ABORTION IN HEALTH BILLS, 7 abortion members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee would apply a meaningless bookkeeping procedure to plans that receive these subsidies.) Based on estimates by the Congressional Budget Office, 27 million people would be covered under the House bill s new federal subsidies for insurance premiums and cost-sharing. For many years, Congress has prohibited the use of federal funding for health plans that cover abortion, except in cases of life of the mother, rape or incest. Federal law, including laws governing the Federal Employees Health Benefits program (FEHB) and Medicaid, currently prohibit the use of federal tax dollars to pay for abortions directly or to pay for health insurance that covers abortion (except to save the life of the mother, or in cases of rape or incest). Pro-life members of Congress attempted to add amendments to H.R and the Senate Kennedy bill to ensure the funding in those bills does not flow to plans that cover elective abortion, but these amendments were opposed by the Democratic chairmen of all four committees, and they were defeated. The Hyde Amendment Some members of Congress, and some journalists, have asserted that the Hyde Amendment would prevent the federal subsidy funds from supporting abortion. This is a misconception (or, in some cases, a deliberate misrepresentation). The Hyde Amendment is not a government-wide law it is merely a limitation attached to the annual Health and Human Services (HHS) appropriations bill (also applied, through a separate statute, to the Indian Health Service). H.R and the Senate Kennedy bill directly appropriate funds to establish the public plan, and directly appropriate funds to provide federal subsidies for premiums. None of this funding would flow through the HHS appropriations bill and thus, none of it is subject to the requirements of the Hyde Amendment, even in the short term. As the Associated Press accurately noted in an article titled Government insurance would allow coverage for abortion, by Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar (August 5, 2009): A law called the Hyde amendment applies the restrictions to Medicaid, forcing states that cover abortion for low-income women to do so with their own money. Separate laws apply the restrictions to the federal employee health plan and military and other programs. The health overhaul would create a stream of federal funding not covered by the restrictions. The new federal funds would take the form of subsidies for low- and middle-income people buying coverage through the health insurance exchange. Subsidies would be available for people to buy the public plan or private coverage. [emphasis added]

16 NAT. RIGHT TO LIFE, ABORTION IN HEALTH BILLS, 8 The Capps Amendment and Federal Premium Subsidies Under the phony compromise adopted by key pro-abortion lawmakers on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the Capps Amendment, these new federal subsidies could be used to purchase plans that cover abortion on demand. Under the Capps amendment, the amount of money spent for elective abortion would be attributed, on the books, to the portion of the insurance premium paid for with personal premium contributions a device denounced by pro-life analysts as a mere bookkeeping sham. Under the Capps Amendment, any citizen who wanted to take advantage of the federally operated public plan would have no option other than to buy coverage of all elective abortions, even if he or she was strongly opposed to abortion, and the Capps Amendment specifically requires that the premium charged to all enrollees must be increased sufficiently to pay for all of the abortions. Abortionists would bill the federal agency for abortions performed on public-plan subscribers, and checks would be sent to the abortionists drawn on the federal agency s account. The Capps Amendment also mandates that at least one private insurance plan must offer unlimited abortion coverage in each premium rating area of the new Health Insurance Exchange. Pro-life groups (including National Right to Life, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), and the Family Research Council) immediately denounced the Capps amendment as phony and urged its defeat. (A recent analysis by the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention also emphasized that the Capps Amendment explicitly adds abortion coverage to the bill. 13 ) Following the approval of the Capps Amendment by the committee, USCCB official Richard Doerflinger called the amendment s purported separation of private premiums and federal subsidies a legal fiction. Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), co-chairman of the House Pro-Life Caucus, said of the Capps Amendment, It s one of the most deceptive amendments I have ever seen. The bottom line is that money is fungible, and the plan itself will be subsidizing abortion-on-demand, with taxpayer funding commingled, and the numbers of abortions will go up significantly. Cardinal Justin Rigali, Chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on Pro- Life Activities, said in a letter sent to members of the U.S. House of Representatives on August 11, 2009: Funds paid into these plans are fungible, and federal taxpayer funds will subsidize the 13 See "America's Affordable Health Choices Act (H.R. 3200): The House Health Care Bill Exposed," by Brian J. Barnes and Jesse Williams, edited by Barrett Duke, Ph.D., The Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, July 31,

17 NAT. RIGHT TO LIFE, ABORTION IN HEALTH BILLS, 9 operating budget and provider networks that expand access to abortions. Furthermore, those constrained by economic necessity or other factors to purchase the public plan will be forced by the federal government to pay directly and specifically for abortion coverage. This is the opposite of the policy in every other federal health program. Government will force low-income Americans to subsidize abortions for others (and abortion coverage for themselves) even if they find abortion morally abhorrent. 14 Cardinal Rigali urged members to support amendments to correct these unacceptable features and to oppose any rule for consideration of H.R that would block such amendments. Current Private Insurance Coverage for Abortion Some have argued that an amendment to deny federal subsidies for coverage of elective abortions would take away something that some people currently have. But in reality, nobody right now has federally subsidized abortion coverage. Abortion is currently excluded from CHIP and from the military by statutes, and from the Medicaid program by the yearly patch of the Hyde Amendment. Perhaps the closest similarity to the premium subsidies in H.R is the current Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) program, a federally administered program in which over 260 private insurance plans cover 7.7 million persons. Since 1983 (except during ), Congress has barred any of the private plans that participate in this program from covering abortion (with current exceptions to save the life of the mother, or in cases of rape or incest). Whatever elective abortion coverage currently exists in private insurance plans is the result of free decisions in the marketplace by insurers, employers, and/or consumers of insurance not of federal or state mandates. Amending H.R to exclude federal subsidies for plans that cover elective abortion, as pro-life groups want, would not prevent anyone from enrolling in a federally subsidized plan (without abortion) and also buying supplemental, non-subsidized coverage for abortion with their own funds. It is also worth noting that the prevalence of current private insurance coverage for elective abortion has been greatly exaggerated by some pro-abortion advocates during the current debate over health care legislation. Here are some pertinent points on this subject:! Pro-abortion groups recently have cited a 2002 survey by the Guttmacher Institute that purports to show that 87% of surveyed employment-based health plans covered abortion (sometimes rounded up to 90% by advocates). This report was based on voluntary responses sent to AGI, which is well-known as a pro-abortion advocacy organization, by insurers who were selected by AGI to be surveyed by complicated criteria described in the report. Moreover, the report itself said that some of the insurers reporting that abortion was covered narrowly interpreted this to mean when a pregnancy threatens a woman s health. Clearly, then, AGI 14 The letter is posted at

18 NAT. RIGHT TO LIFE, ABORTION IN HEALTH BILLS, 10 arrived at the 87% figure by counting any respondent in its sample that covered abortion even to save the life of the mother. Thus, this report is essentially useless in estimating the extent of private insurance coverage of elective abortion.! CQ Today reported (July 15, 2009): Most people with employer-sponsored insurance also must pay for abortions out of their own pocket. Most insurers offer plans that include this coverage, but most employers choose not to offer it as part of their benefits package, said Robert Zirkelbach, a spokesman for America s Health Insurance Plans, the insurance industry s trade association.! During her confirmation proceedings to be secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius said in a written response to a question: Most private plans do not cover abortion services except in limited instances, but do cover family planning, and Congress has limited the Federal Employee Health Benefit Plan to covering abortion services only in cases of rape or incest, or when the life of the mother is in danger. 15! The Heritage Foundation says that 46% of workers have employer-based health insurance that finances abortion, citing a 2003 Employer Health Benefits Survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation. 16 Public Opinion Americans do not want to see their tax dollars used to pay for abortions In late November, 2008, pollster Zogby asked: The Hyde Amendment says that federal tax funds may be used to pay for abortions only to save the life of the mother, or in cases of rape or incest. Some lawmakers are proposing to repeal this law, which would result in taxpayer funding of abortions performed as a method of birth control. Do you favor or oppose the repeal of the Hyde Amendment?" 69 percent said no while 21 percent said yes. Zogby also asked: President-elect Obama has proposed a bill that would force many employers to provide health insurance to their employees. Do you believe that this bill should also require insurance plans pay for abortions when the abortions are performed as a method of birth control? 71 percent said no while 20 percent said yes. 17 A May 2009 survey by the Mellman Group, commissioned by the pro-abortion advocacy group, 15 See Finance Committee Questions for the Record, U.S. Senate Finance Committee Hearing on Confirmation of Kathleen Sebelius to be Secretary of Health and Human Services, April 2, The Health Insurance Exchange: Enabling Freedom of Conscience in Health Care, Heritage Foundation, March 1, Zogby International poll conducted November 25, 2008 to December 1, 2008, 2,488 respondents, margin of error +/- 2.0 percent.