Abortion Battle Getting Entangled in Health Care Reform

By William Wan

As congress gears up to tackle health care reform, opposition from Christian conservatives is heating up over the issue of abortion. At the heart of the debate is the issue of whether President Obama's health care plan could be used to fund abortions. White House budget chief Peter Orzag was asked on Fox News whether abortion services should be covered in a public insurance plan, and he said: "I'm not prepared to rule it out."

Reaction from anti-abortion forces has been quick and fierce. In a matter of days, they threw up a website called StopTheAbortionMandate.com and organized a webcast scheduled for Thursday night . The list of powerhouse speakers from the anti-abortion movement and conservative movement includes Mike Huckabee, James Dobson, Richard Land (from the Southern Baptist Convention) and other politicians, religious leaders and advocates. More names are at the end of this post.

Meanwhile, also Thursday, supporters and opponents of legal abortion plan to announce an effort to bridge the divide. Democratic U.S., Reps. Tim Ryan (Ohio) and Rosa DeLauro (Conn.) are rolling out their bill, Reducing the Need for Abortions Initiative. The bill's being sold as a concrete example of the "common ground" approach Obama keeps pushing for (instead of fighting about the right and wrong of abortion, work together to reduce it). Ryan and DeLauro have lined up several religious leaders to support them.

For more background on the abortion-religion-health care nexus, check out this prescient blog post from Jacqui from last week.

Thursday's anti-abortion webcast is being promoted with some strong language: "Pro-Life Friends, Sound the alarm! Powerful abortion industry lobbyists and Washington, D.C., politicians have just launched a massive effort to mandate taxpayer-funded abortions as part of their proposed trillion-dollar health care takeover. This political power-grab is an effort to implement one of the cornerstones of the 'Freedom of Choice Act' (FOCA), and could lead to a massive abortion industry bailout -- something the overwhelming majority of Americans oppose, and certainly cannot afford in these tough economic times.

List of speakers includes:
James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family
Mike Huckabee, former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate
Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission
US Rep. Joe Pitts, (R-Penn.)
US Rep. Chris Smith, (R-NJ)
Tom Minnery, senior vice president for government and public policy for Focus on the Family
Frank Pavone, founder of Priests for Life
Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America
Charmaine Yoest, president of Americans United for Life

Several other conservative Christian groups, including this one called Operation Rescue, have been stirring up opposition on the abortion issue of health care bill.

***

As for the "common ground" legislation being announced Thursday, organizers say they have 40 faith leaders supporting the cause. More background about the political maneuvering on the hill here.

Here's the full text of the press release:

Congressman Tim Ryan (OH-17) and Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (CT-03), lead sponsors of the Preventing Unintended Pregnancies, Reducing the Need for Abortion and Supporting Parents Act, will be joined by major pro-life and pro-choice leaders this Thursday, July 23, 2009 at a press conference announcing a unique approach to the abortion debate. In the spirit of President Barack Obama's call to find common ground between the pro-choice and pro-life communities, Congressman Ryan, a pro-life Democrat and Congresswoman DeLauro, a pro-choice Democrat have written legislation that presents concrete progress toward the shared goal of reducing the need for abortion by preventing unintended pregnancies and supporting pregnant women and families.

Congressman Ryan and DeLauro will be joined by supporters of the bill from across the abortion divide including Dr. Joel C. Hunter, Senior Pastor at Northland Church and board member of the World Evangelical Alliance and the National Association of Evangelicals, representatives from NARAL Pro-Choice America, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and Pastor Derrick Harkins of the Nineteenth Street Baptist Church and board member of World Relief, the humanitarian arm of the National Association of Evangelicals. These supporters are among dozens of prominent pro-choice and pro-life leaders from the religious community and the secular advocacy world who are united in their support for this bill.

Who: Congressman Tim Ryan (OH-17) and Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (CT-03), Pro-Life and Pro-Choice leaders.

What: Press Conference on common ground and a concrete path forward on reducing the need for abortions

Where: Speaker of the House Dining Room, The Capitol, Room H-122

When: This THURSDAY, July 23, 2009 at 11:30 AM

Audio of event will be available on Rep. Ryan & Rep. DeLauro's websites after the event.

By William Wan  |  July 22, 2009; 8:38 AM ET  | Category:  God in Government Save & Share:                 
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