On November 30, the U.S. Senate began the process of considering amendments to Senator Reid’s health care legislation. The first amendment offered was Mikulski Amendment No. 2791, dealing with federally mandated coverage of “preventive care.” Late today, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) sent senators a letter opposing the Mikulski Amendment, unless it is revised.  The letter can be read here.  It is not yet known when the Senate will vote on the Mikulski Amendment.

“Congressman Tim Ryan (D-OH) is, in many ways, a typical pro-life American.”

From “The Breakup of the Pro-Life Movement,” by Cristina Page that appeared on The Huffington Post, July 29.

“Mr. Saletan’s statement that ‘Ryan has stood up for unborn life, vote after vote after vote after vote,’ regrettably does not comport with Mr. Ryan’s actual voting record. Early in his congressional career, Ryan cast some pro-life votes and some pro-abortion votes. … Since 2007, however, Mr. Ryan’s record has not been mixed — he did not cast a single pro-life vote in 2007, 2008, or 2009. Ryan’s most recent abortion-related vote occurred in the House Appropriations Committee on July 7, 2009, when he voted against all the real pro-lifers and in favor of repealing the longstanding ban on funding elective abortions, with funds appropriated by Congress, in the District of Columbia. Ryan advocates letting D.C. (a federal jurisdiction) pay for abortion on demand, with funds appropriated by Congress, under a paper bookkeeping scheme. The result, if enacted, will be funding of 4,000 or 5,000 abortions annually with congressionally appropriated funds, including about 1,000 abortions a year that would not happen otherwise. “

NRLC Federal Legislative Director Douglas Johnson, responding to a piece by Slate columnist Will Saletan, at slate.com.

Even though Ryan presents himself as a pro-lifer, he did not cast a single pro-life vote in the last Congress. He broke with pro-lifers on stem-cell funding, on cloning, on foreign aid, and, of course, on Planned Parenthood funding. Nowadays his allegedly ‘pro-life’ advocacy consists entirely of working with Congresswoman DeLauro to funnel more money to abortion providers.

Ramesh Ponnuru, writing at Nationalreview.com.

“First, overall, all things considered, the policy agenda of the current Administration and congressional majority cannot plausibly be regarded as one that will reduce abortions. Dramatic increases in the subsidization of an activity, combined with calls for the removal of all restrictions on that activity, are not well designed for reducing that activity.”

From a July 29 post on the blog, “Mirror of Justice.”

First, you will want to read NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson’s response to Mr. Saletan’s quirky, slippery, dare I say bewildering argument.   It is devastating for the same reasons NRLC rebuttals always are. It’s fact-based, refuses to allow patently false statements to go unchallenged, and places the entire debate in its larger [read understandable] context.

Speaking of larger contexts, Saletan’s column is only one of many making the rounds, touting the same outlandish argument that has grown so wearisome in the Obama era. If you don’t buy into their internally inconsistent proposals [flood the abortion industry with a gazillion dollars, dynamite every protection that slows down the lethal assault on unborn babies, but still claim that "abortion reduction" is your objective], then you are cranky, out-of-the-mainstream, and (my favorite) “militant.”

Pro-lifers are used to attempts to marginalize us. The old gambit was to insist that the Pro-Life Movement was a fringe group whose attempts to rein in abortion were like wolves baying at the moon.

Now we’re told that “traditional” pro-life groups, especially NRLC, are mincemeat, not because America is becoming more pro-abortion (the polls show just the opposite), but because we represent the out-of-touch “old guard” about to be replaced by young pups who are serious about “reducing the number of abortions.” Read more…

Take a look at this video (and spread it around as widely as possible) of key Democrats on the House Education and Labor Committee opposing pro-life Congressman Mark Souder’s NRLC-backed amendment to remove abortion mandates from H.R. 3200, the Obama-backed health care bill. Hear Rep. Rob Andrews (D-NJ) acknowledge that the bill will cover abortion like any other “surgery,” and hear Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Ca.) compare covering abortions to covering tonsillectomies. The committee rejected the pro-life amendment, 19-28.

From the most recent update over at the Legislative Action Center:

“Back in 2007 Barack Obama told the Planned Parenthood Action Fund that reproductive care (code for abortion), is “essential care, basic care, so it is at the center, the heart of the plan I propose.” And in April 2009, the president of Planned Parenthood said that her organization intends to use the health care legislation as a “platform” to guarantee access to abortion to “all women.” So its no surprise that we are now faced with bills for healthcare “reform” that contain sweeping mandates to expand access to abortion on demand, override state abortion laws, and establish federal funding of abortion.  The Obama White House and Democratic congressional leaders are pushing for votes on these bills by late July. National Right to Life’s legislative director, Douglas Johnson, says “These bills pose one of the greatest threats to pro-life policies since the Supreme Court handed down its Roe v. Wade ruling legalizing abortion in 1973.”

Right now on Capitol Hill two Senate committees and three Houses committees are nearing the end of the process of crafting “health care reform bills” that would, among other things, result in mandatory insurance coverage of abortion on demand, federal subsidies for abortion, and mandated local abortion facilities.  These bills will also allow the nullification of many state limitations on abortion.

Both of these bills would empower federal officials to mandate coverage of abortion on demand in virtually all health plans.  Both of these bills would also result in massive federal subsidies for abortion on demand.  Both of the bills would empower federal officials to order expansions of abortion providers in many areas of the country (referred to by pro-life analysts as the “abortion clinic mandate”), and to override at least some state abortion regulations.  And they do all this without ever mentioning the word “abortion.“”

We’ve been highlighting the threat as it’s been developing, and what’s in the proposed legislation and what’s at stake is now crystal clear. It’s time to mobilize.

Here’s what you can, need to, must do. First, go to the Legislative Action Center, and take a few minutes to urge your representatives to oppose any federal “health care reform” that does not explicitly exclude abortion . You can e-mail them or call them, and there’s no reason not to do both.

If you have Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, or a blog, spread this message around. Frankly, we don’t mind if you just cut and paste. The media won’t do its job, so we’ll have make sure as many people as possible know. For Facebook, you can set your status to read ”

The ‘heart of health care reform’ is a threat to stop the hearts of the unborn.  Abortion funding is being mandated in health care proposals. Urge your representatives to oppose any health care reform that does not explicitly exclude abortion.

Be sure to include a link to the action alert somewhere on your profile.

Post any feedback you get or any helpful tips. Comment here, join the Facebook group if you haven’t already done so.

It’s time to move. Get to work. Remember what Rep. Chris Smith said. “This is the big one. They get this, and we’ll have abortion clinics everywhere.”