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Press Release
Reid
Health Care Bill Rejects Stupak Amendment. Will Fund And
Subsidize Abortion.
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Bill mirrors phony Capps amendment compromise and funds
abortion on demand throughout pregnancy for any reason.
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Reid bill will lead to massive abortion increases.
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Reid alone responsible for abortion provisions.
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Reid’s claims to be pro-life are meaningless and
smokescreen.
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Reid provisions to fund abortion were expected.
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 18, 2009
Contact
Don Nelson, Nevada LIFE, 775-530-0029
The following statement can
be attributed to Nevada LIFE President Don Nelson:
Senator Harry Reid has broken his
promise to keep abortion out of health care by rejecting
the Stupak-Pitts amendment and substituting it with
language that will fund and subsidize abortion on demand
throughout pregnancy in two large new federal programs.
Reid’s attempt to fool the public is
transparent. Reid’s bill contains the same phony
language that was previously claimed as a compromise to
ban funding of abortion but instead authorized abortion
funding throughout pregnancy for any reason and subsidized
abortion providing health care plans. In a press
release after release of the Reid bill, Rep. Lois Capps
(D-Ca.), the author of the phony “compromise” amendment in
the House said, "It appears that their approach closely
mirrors my language which was originally included in the
House bill." (Capps has a 100 percent pro-abortion voting
record.) The Capps amendment was deleted by the House
240-194 and replaced with the Stupak amendment with the
support of 64 Democrats (one fourth of all House
Democrats), along with 176 Republicans, voted to replace
it with the Stupak-Pitts Amendment.
The Reid bill will lead to massive
increases in abortion and overturn longstanding and widely
supported policy of not using government funding for
abortion. Over 60 percent of Americans oppose
government funding of abortion. Stupak-Pitts closely
replicates the long standing Hyde Amendment which has
prohibited Medicaid funding of abortion for over 30 years.
It will prohibit both direct funding of abortion
procedures, and subsidies for plans that cover elective
abortions. Stupak is necessary because Hyde would not
apply to the proposed health care bills. Purchase of
abortion insurance with personal funds will not be
prohibited.
Harry
Reid’s claims to pro-life are meaningless and a
smokescreen. It’s impossible to be pro-life and vote to
fund and subsidize abortion. Reid wrote the bill and
could have made it so that the bill did not fund or
subsidize abortion by including the Stupak-Pitts
Amendment. He is the Majority Leader and no one had the
power to stop him from doing it.
Reid
knows that it is much harder to take something out of the
bill and that it is much easier to defend provisions
already in the bill. He has decided to give the advantage
to abortion proponents. Harry Reid is living up to his
award as a
Planned Parenthood Nevada legislator of the year by
implementing Planned Parenthood’s stated policy of federal
government funding of abortion on demand throughout
pregnancy.
Unless the Stupak-Pitts amendment is inserted into the
health care bill, the government will fund and subsidize
abortion on demand and lead to massive increases in
abortion.
Addenda-Reid Decision To Include Abortion Expected.
Previous Claims Unbelievable
Reid’s
decision to fund and subsidize abortion throughout
pregnancy is not unexpected
and his claim that the Senate bill would not fund abortion
was unbelievable due to Reid’s previous comments and
outright distortions, obfuscation and lies about previous
bills. For instance:
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Reid told the Weekly Standard that he "could"
support a health care bill covering abortion.
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Reid
knowingly told constituents in a town hall meeting that
the House bill excluded abortion when it didn’t.
(Recording at
http://reid.senate.gov/newsroom/081809_townhall.cfm
see 45.10)
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Reid
knowingly told constituents that the Hyde amendment,
which he knows only applies to Medicaid, would stop
abortion funding in health care when he had to know it
didn’t after three decades of votes (See same recording
in same place).
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In
the same town hall meeting and other places, Reid said
that pro-life claims that the three house bills and the
Senate bill funded abortion (without Stupak) were a myth
(see same recording near 4:30). The Stupak debate and
recent admissions by abortion advocates show those
claims were no myth. It showed Reid was shilling for
Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry.
Reid’s
abortion provisions were also expected because of his
pro-abortion votes to fund abortion overseas, votes
opposing conscience protections, his votes against
anti-coercion and sterilization amendments and his
disinformation about the health care bills.
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