WASHINGTON – The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the national federation of state right-to-life organizations, said today that it would continue to challenge the Obama Administration’s authority to mandate that virtually all employers pay for services they regard as morally objectionable, both in Congress and through political action.

The U.S. Senate today rejected an initial attempt to prevent the Obama Administration from forcing employers to provide h­­ealth insurance that covers drugs or procedures to which they are morally opposed. By a vote of 51-48, the Senate tabled (killed) an amendment offered by pro-life Senator Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and strongly supported by NRLC. The text of the Blunt Amendment is taken from an NRLC-endorsed bill, the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act (S. 1467, H.R. 1179). It would amend the Obama health care law (“ObamaCare”) to prevent the use of that law to issue regulatory mandates that violate the religious or moral convictions of those who purchase or provide health insurance.

The Blunt legislation does not affect any federal law other than ObamaCare, nor does it apply to state laws. In addition, the legislation does not allow any insurer to “discriminate against individuals because of their age, disability, or expected length of life.”

The Obama Administration has issued an initial mandate that requires nearly all employers to purchase plans that cover all FDA-approved methods of birth control. NRLC has pointed out that the same authority could be employed by the Administration in the future to order virtually all health plans to cover all abortions.

The focus now shifts to the House, where the same legislation, introduced as H.R. 1179 by Congressman Jeff Fortenberry (R-Ne.), currently has 220 cosponsors (more than half of all House members). In addition, numerous lawsuits have been filed by religiously affiliated employers, challenging the Obama mandate as a violation of constitutional rights and of the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

“National Right to Life will continue to challenge the Obama Administration’s abortion-expansionist agenda on Capitol Hill, and we will encourage millions of like-minded Americans to remember this issue when they cast their ballots in November,” said Carol Tobias, National Right to Life president.

WASHINGTON – Late this afternoon, the Georgia House of Representatives voted 102-65 to pass the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which protects unborn children capable of feeling pain. The bill will now go to the Georgia Senate for consideration.

“We applaud the Georgia House of Representatives for taking this important step for pain-capable children,” said Mary Spaulding Balch, J.D., director of state legislation for the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC). “The state has a vested interest in protecting unborn children who can feel pain from the violence of abortion.”

The model Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, drafted by the National Right to Life Committee’s state legislation department, protects the life of the unborn child at the point that they are capable of feeling pain except when the mother “has a condition which so complicates her medical condition as to necessitate the abortion of her pregnancy to avert death or to avert serious risk of substantial or irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function or…it is necessary to preserve the life of an unborn child.” Further documentation and links to the scientific studies can be found at: www.doctorsonfetalpain.com.

The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, a priority of the National Right to Life Committee, has been passed in five states and is currently being debated across the country. The legislation has also been introduced in Congress with the intent to protect unborn children in the District of Columbia who are able to feel pain during an abortion.

“Medical science has changed over the last forty years,” said Balch “Accordingly, elected officials across the country are looking at new medical advances and recognizing that our laws need to step into the future as we continue to learn more about the development of the unborn child.”

Urge the U.S. Senate to protect religious freedom next week!
Call Now — U.S. senators to vote next week on pro-life Blunt Amendment! 

Take Action!

WASHINGTON — Phone calls to U.S. senators are urgently needed in support of a vital pro-life amendment that is likely to be voted on around February 28, or within a few days thereafter.  Please click on the “Take Action” link above, then enter your zip code in the “Call Now” box, and you will be shown the correct numbers to call and suggested points to make during your call.

The amendment has been offered by pro-life Senator Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and is strongly supported by the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC).  The text of the Blunt Amendment is taken from an NRLC-endorsed bill, the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act (S. 1467, H.R. 1179).  It would amend the Obama health care law (“ObamaCare”) to prevent the imposition of regulatory mandates that violate the religious or moral convictions of those who purchase or provide health insurance, such as the recent decree that virtually all employers — including religiously affiliated hospitals and schools — must purchase health insurance plans that cover all government-approved methods of birth control.

When President Obama’s health care legislation was under consideration in the Senate in 2009, NRLC warned that a provision dealing with “preventive health services” would empower the Secretary of Health and Human Services to mandate coverage of any medical service, including abortion, merely by adding the service to an expandable list.  Predictably, the Administration issued a decree in August, 2011, covering all FDA-approved birth control methods – a mandate that, unless overturned, will produce an irreconcilable conflict between conscience and the coercive force of government for many employers.  In recent months, the Administration’s “birth-control mandate” has been strongly characterized as an attack on fundamental religious liberties by the U.S. Catholic bishops, the Southern Baptist Convention, the National Association of Evangelicals, the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, and the leaders of many other religious bodies.

But this is not a debate only about the specific parameters of the birth-control mandate.  Exactly the same statutory authority could be used by the Administration — as early as next year — to mandate that virtually all health plans pay for elective abortion on demand.

The Blunt Amendment goes to the heart of the problem by amending the ObamaCare law itself, to prevent provisions of the law from being used as a basis for regulatory mandates that violate the religious or moral convictions of those who purchase or provide health insurance.

PLEASE CALL TODAY!

Please click on the “Take Action” link above.  Enter your zip code in the “Call Now” box, and you will be shown the correct phone numbers to call for your two U.S. senators.  You will be shown suggested comments that you can make to the staff person who takes the call.  You’ll also be invited to use the simple “Your Feedback” tool to send NRLC a short email, reporting on how your call went, if you wish to do so.

To view a letter sent by NRLC to senators, which provides more details on this issue, click here.  To view additional information regarding the Obama Administration’s attacks on pro-life health care providers, click here.