As explained in a February 22 release from the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), posted here, the Senate-passed health bill (H.R. 3590) contains multiple pro-abortion provisions, none of which would be corrected by the changes proposed by President Obama this week, and which in total constitute the biggest proposed expansion of abortion to come before either house of Congress for a vote since Roe v. Wade.

Today, NRLC released an updated memorandum on one of these issues — a provision that would provide a new pool of billions of dollars in federal funds that could be used directly to pay for abortion, without restriction, in Community Health Centers (CHCs).  The new memo can be viewed in a web browser here, and viewed or downloaded in PDF format here.

This particular problem was created by language that was added to the Senate bill by the last-minute Reid Manager’s Amendment, to provide CHCs with $7 billion in federal funds, with nothing to prevent CHCs from using these funds to perform abortions.  As the NRLC memo documents, two pro-abortion groups already have projects underway to encourage CHCs to provide abortions.  (The CHC problem is entirely unrelated to other objectionable language in the bill associated with Sen. Ben Nelson.)

In his February 22 list of proposed changes to the Senate-passed bill, President Obama included a proposed increase in the CHC funding from the Senate-approved $7 billion to $11 billion — still without any restriction on the use of the funds for abortion.

Earlier today (February 24), Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mi.) was asked about this specific provision during an interview on Fox News Network; he declared that it is “unacceptable,” and also condemned other abortion-related provisions of the Senate-passed bill.

The video of the interview with Mr. Stupak is posted here.

The following statement may be attributed to Douglas Johnson, legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of right-to-life affiliates in all 50 states:

Any member of Congress who votes for the final legislation proposed by President Obama will be voting for direct federal funding of elective abortion through Community Health Centers, and also an array of other pro-abortion federal subsidies and mandates.

The health bill passed by the Senate in December (H.R. 3590) had become, by the conclusion of the Senate amendment process, the most expansively pro-abortion bill ever brought to the floor of either house of Congress since Roe v. Wade.  The Senate bill, as passed, contained seven distinct problems pertaining to abortion policies.  (The bill passed earlier by the House, H.R. 3962, contained none of these pro-abortion components, thanks to adoption of the Stupak-Pitts Amendment on the House floor on November 7, 2009, by a vote of 240-194.)  President Obama today proposed “a targeted set of changes to” the Senate-passed bill.  None of President Obama’s proposed changes diminish any of the sweeping pro-abortion problems in the Senate bill, and he actually proposes to increase the funds that would be available to directly subsidize abortion procedures (through Community Health Centers) and to subsidize private health insurance that covers abortion (through the premium-subsidy tax credits program).

If all of the President’s changes were made, the resulting legislation would allow direct federal funding of abortion on demand through Community Health Centers, would institute federal subsidies for private health plans that cover abortion on demand (including some federally administered plans), and would authorize federal mandates that would require even non-subsidized private plans to cover elective abortion.

Here is one problem, offered for illustration:  The Senate bill, due to a last-minute amendment, provides $7 billion for the nation’s 1,250 Community Health Centers, without any restriction whatever on the use of these federal funds to pay directly for abortion on demand.  (These funds are entirely untouched by the “Hyde Amendment” that currently covers Medicaid.)  Obama today proposed to increase that figure to $11 billion, but without adding a prohibition on the use of the funds for abortion.  (The House-passed bill would provide $12 billion, but in the House bill the funds would be covered by the Stupak-Pitts Amendment.)  Two pro-abortion groups, the Reproductive Health Access Project and the Abortion Access Project, are already actively campaigning for Community Health Centers to perform elective abortions.  In short, the Senate bill would allow direct federal funding of abortion on demand through Community Health Centers.  A memorandum documenting this issue in further detail is posted here:  http://www.nrlc.org/AHC/NRLCmemoCommHealth.pdf

The abortion-related differences between the House-passed and Senate-passed bills are far, far greater than one would gather from reading superficial summaries such as those published repeatedly in the mainstream news media.  These thumbnail sketches have tended to focus exclusively and superficially on certain provisions associated with Senator Ben Nelson.  NRLC believes that the Nelson provisions are unacceptable, but the pro-abortion problems in the Senate bill go far beyond the flawed Nelson provisions.  A letter from NRLC to U.S. House members, explaining the multiple pro-abortion components of the Senate-passed bill, is posted here: http://www.nrlc.org/AHC/HouseLetteronAbortionProvisions.html

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB)  produced a 13-page memorandum that throws the many unacceptable provisions of the Senate bill into stark relief, which is posted here:  http://www.usccb.org/healthcare/life_conscience.pdf

A substantial number of pro-life Democrats in the House, including some lawmakers whose names have not been mentioned on the various published lists, have told their constituents that they are not going to vote for the Senate-passed bill because of the abortion problems.  For pro-life Democrats, President Obama’s proposal only makes matters worse. The only thing that would fix the Senate bill on abortion is permanent, bill-wide language that is functionally identical to the Stupak-Pitts Amendment adopted in the House on November 7, 2009.

The Obama proposal also would force rationing of lifesaving medical treatment, a matter that will be the subject of separate comment by the National Right to Life Committee.

The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of right-to-life organizations in all 50 states, strongly opposes the abortion language contained in the “manager’s amendment” filed today by U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (Nv.).  Reid intends to press for Senate approval of the language during the days immediately ahead, without allowing an opportunity for any revisions to be considered.

The following statement may be attributed to NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson:

The manager’s amendment is light years removed from the Stupak-Pitts Amendment that was approved by the House of Representatives on November 8 by a bipartisan vote of 240-194.  The new abortion language solves none of the fundamental abortion-related problems with the Senate bill, and it actually creates some new abortion-related problems.

NRLC will score the upcoming roll call votes on cloture on the Reid manager’s amendment, and on the underlying bill, as votes in favor of legislation to allow the federal government to subsidize private insurance plans that cover abortion on demand, to oversee multi-state plans that cover elective abortions, and to empower federal officials to mandate that private health plans cover abortions even if they do not accept subsidized enrollees, among other problems.

In addition, if the final bill produced by a House-Senate conference committee does not contain the Stupak-Pitts Amendment, NRLC will score the House and Senate votes on the conference report as votes to allow federal mandates and subsidies for coverage of elective abortion.  Unless the Stupak-Pitts Amendment is included in the final bill, and the new pro-abortion provisions dropped, a significant number of House members who voted for H.R. 3962 will not vote to pass the final legislation.

A more detailed critique of the new Reid language will be posted on the NRLC website later today at http://www.nrlc.org/ahc