By Dave Andrusko
Congressman Joe Pitts (R-Pa.)
By now you know the good news and have shared it with friends. By a 79 vote margin–251-172–the U.S. House of Representatives last night approved H.R. 358, the Protect Life Act.
Sponsored by Congressman Joe Pitts (R-Pa.) and Congressman Dan Lipinski (D-Il.), the bill was supported by 236 Republicans and 15 Democrats. It was opposed by 170 Democrats and two Republicans.
And because H.R. 358 would contract the multiple abortion-expanding provisions of ObamaCare, we knew in advance that there would be no depths to which their rhetorical charges would not sink.
As we reported last week, we got a heads-up from Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius in a speech she delivered to a NARAL Pro-Choice America “Chicago Power of Choice” Luncheon. Sebelius rallied the troops, telling her audience that the Obama Administration “will be fighting with you every step along the way,” and likening the current situation in the states and on Capitol Hill to a “war.”
Congressman Dan Lipinski (D-Il.)
Sebelius told her audience that the key to “moving forward to a day when all American woman have access to the comprehensive health services they need and the right to make their own choices about their bodies and their own futures” is to able to “fight through the misinformation and get Americans the facts.” But, of course, what Sebelius really meant was that in order to try to maintain ObamaCare intact it required that pro-abortion Democrats power spray the House yesterday with a flood of misinformation about the Protect Life Act.
So it was not exactly a surprise when House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi claimed (in reference to the bill’s conscience clause protections) that “When the Republicans vote for this bill today, they will be voting to say that women can die on the floor of health care providers… it’s just appalling.”
What’s really “just appalling,” however, is that even Pelosi must have known this is not true. As NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson pointed out,
“During today’s debate, opponents of the bill repeatedly claimed that it would allow hospitals to deny women ‘emergency’ abortions. In reality, the bill does not change the longstanding federal law in question, called EMTALA, which requires that in an ‘emergency’ a hospital must do its best to stabilize both the pregnant mother and her ‘unborn child’ (which is the term used in the statute). The Protect Life Act allows federal funding of an abortion required to save a mother’s life.”
Moreover, as pro-life Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) explained yesterday, “Conscience clauses and EMTALA have coexisted for many years without a problem.” A problem developed with the inclusion of what Congressman Smith describes as “a little known provision” in ObamaCare that threatened the consciences of pro-life health providers—a “devastating loophole”– that H.R. 358 is intended to correct.
We were further forewarned of where pro-abortionists were coming from on the day before the vote. The White House issued a formal veto threat against the Protect Life Act. Again, the pretense was that promotion of abortion was not embedded in ObamaCare.
“President Obama won enactment of ObamaCare in 2010 partly by pretending that the bill did not expand abortion — but now the mask is coming off,” said NRLC’s Johnson. But that’s not to say Obama won’t try to tie that mask back on.
Final thought, about what the Protect Life Act would really do. H.R. 358 would prohibit the use of any ObamaCare-authorized funds for abortions or to subsidize health plans that cover abortions, except to save the life of the mother, or in cases of rape or incest. The Protect Life Act would not restrict the sale or purchase of insurance coverage for abortion with non-federal funds.
Please send me ANY news account that accurately conveys that truth.