Pro-Lifers cave, secure health care reform
Doug CarlsonAll eyes were on Capitol Hill on Sunday. Late that evening, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, bucking the will of the American people, cobbled together a slim majority of House votes to send a trillion-dollar health care reform package to President Obama, who signed the overhaul into law today. To pro-lifers’ dismay, a flawed concession on the prominent issue that had threatened reform for months, abortion, proved to be a deciding factor in its passage.
Just hours before the House vote, the White House struck a deal with Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) and a handful of other Democratic holdouts by agreeing to an executive order to supposedly block funding of elective abortion under the bill. That was enough to propel the bill past the necessary 216 mark for passage with a final vote of 219-212.
Yet Rep. Stupak and his band of colleagues, who had committed from the earliest days of the health care debate to stand for principle on life, effectively caved. They agreed to a government takeover of health care in exchange for a disposable piece of paper from President Obama—the most pro-abortion president in our nation’s history—stating that health care reform will function under the broad parameters of the Hyde Amendment, which bars federal funding of abortion, with rare exceptions, under other federally-funded health care programs. This agreement should fool no one.
As quickly as the president signs the order, he or a future president can reverse course by signing an order to nullify it. Rep. Stupak himself conceded Monday that “there is nothing that would stop this president from a month from now, a year from now, 10 years from now, of repealing this executive order.” And considering the president’s track record on abortion, pro-lifers should find little comfort in the agreement. This is the same president who, just three days after taking office, overturned the Mexico City Policy, which had barred taxpayer dollars from funding groups overseas that support or perform abortions.
But more significant is the fact that the president’s executive order on abortion carries little force. Statute trumps presidential orders. Congress writes laws, not the president. On these grounds, courts have struck down on multiple occasions presidential orders that don’t square with statute law. Legal scholars conclude that this order also lacks legal force.
The bottom line: Federal dollars will fund abortions under reform. The 219 representatives who voted for the health care reform package voted for what the National Right to Life Committee calls the largest expansion of abortion since Roe v. Wade.
They also voted for mandates that individuals obtain insurance and that businesses offer insurances plans that meet government dictates or else face fines. The bill, combined with the companion reconciliation package of so-called fixes, also imposes more than half a trillion dollars in taxes and cuts Medicare by nearly the same dollar figure, meaning many seniors will not be able to maintain their coverage. And the reform will, among a host of other damaging things, result in higher premiums, a decline in patient care, and strong government control of the doctor-patient relationship, with an estimated 16,500 IRS auditors to ensure Americans are following strict government mandates.
Eleventh hour votes achieved by backroom deals have been the preferred means, it seems, to impose unwanted medicine on the public. The Senate set the stage for the Sunday evening theater in the House by passing the bill on Christmas Eve. In November, the House took the lead on health care reform, approving its initial bill on a Sunday at 11:16 p.m. And the chamber’s final vote on Sunday to send the Senate-passed bill to President Obama occurred, ironically, minutes before 11 p.m.
But the days of reckoning on health care reform are not yet over. A dozen states have already filed lawsuits against the federal government calling the mandates unconstitutional, and conservative lawmakers appear united to work to repeal what has been dubbed Obamacare. One thing is clear: Washington liberals should not be given the final word.
To express your appreciation or dismay to your representative regarding his or her vote, please click here.
This article is reprinted with permission from The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.