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JAMES A SMITH SR.
Executive Editor
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It’s interesting how one year can change a man’s view of his ability to evaluate the moral status of human life.
A year ago, candidate for president Barack Obama told California pastor Rick Warren it was “above my pay grade” to determine at what point a baby gets “human rights.”
However, on Aug. 19 President Barack Obama didn't think it was above his pay grade to assert, “We are God’s partners in matters of life and death.” The comment was made in a conference call with 1,000 rabbis organized by the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism to discuss Obama's healthcare reform agenda. The comment was reported by Politico, based on multiple Twitter posts by participants in the call.
My, how time changes things.
I owe to James Taranto of The Wall Street Journal’s “Best of the Web” (Aug. 21) the comparison of candidate and president Obama’s seeming change in his estimated ability to morally evaluate matters of life and death.
Another thing that has changed from candidate Obama and President Obama has been his frankness about the role of abortion in his ideal overhaul of America’s healthcare.
FactCheck.org, a non-partisan organization that takes no position on abortion, has helpfully analyzed the matter of whether President Obama is telling the truth about abortion in healthcare reform. Written by veteran journalist Brooks Jackson, the FactCheck.org analysis concludes, “As for the House bill as it stands now, it’s a matter of fact that it would allow both a ‘public plan’ and newly subsidized private plans to cover all abortions.”
This should be no surprise, given Obama’s campaign rhetoric and the pro-abortion leadership in the U.S. Congress.
In July 2007, candidate Obama told Planned Parenthood—the nation’s leading abortion provider—“[i]n my mind, reproductive care is essential care” that would be covered by his public insurance plan. Although Obama did not use the word “abortion,” his campaign spokesman later told the Chicago Tribune that abortion would indeed be included.
However, in a different Aug. 19 conference, this time with a claimed 140,000 religious leaders organized by Faith in Public Life, President Obama attempted to confuse the matter of abortion in healthcare reform, claiming there are “some folks out there who are frankly bearing false witness.”
Obama went on to include those who assert healthcare reform will include abortion: “You’ve heard that this is all going to mean government funding of abortion. Not true. This is all, these are all fabrications that have been put out there in order to discourage people from meeting what I consider to be a core ethical and moral obligation, and that is that we look out for one another, that I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sister’s keeper,” according to FactCheck.org’s transcription of the conference call.
FactCheck.org goes on to note, “Abortion foes quickly denounced Obama’s statement as untrue. The [National Right to Life’s] Douglas Johnson said ‘the bill backed by the White House (H.R. 3200) explicitly authorizes the government plan to cover all elective abortions.’ And our analysis shows that Johnson’s statement is correct. Though we of course take no position on whether the legislation should allow or not allow coverage for abortions, the House bill does just that.”
Fabricator-in-Chief exposed.
The moment of truth will soon be upon the U.S. Congress. Shortly after Congress returns from its August recess following Labor Day, both houses are expected to address healthcare reform.
According to the National Right to Life Committee, the House of Representatives bill (H.R. 3200) and the Senate bill, “Affordable Health Choices Act” (yet unnumbered and sponsored by the recently deceased Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.) “would create a new government-operated nationwide insurance plan (the ‘public plan’ or ‘public option’) that would cover all abortions. … oth bills provide massive federal subsidies that will flow to insurance plans (both public and private) that cover elective abortion.”
The NRLC goes on to note:, “Other provisions of the two bills could result in federal administrative directives requiring the establishment of new abortion facilities to provide access to elective abortion in regions which currently lack abortion providers (this is referred to by pro-life analysts as the ‘abortion clinic mandate’). The Kennedy bill also contains language that could result in regulatory invalidation of many state laws regulating abortion.”
NRLC concludes, “In summary, enactment of the Obama-backed legislation would effectively reverse longstanding federal policy against government promotion of abortion, and would result in a substantial increase in the number of abortions performed in America.”
Clearly, it is the intention and desire of the president and his base supporters in Congress that abortion be included in healthcare reform. It’s long past time for the president to stop “fabricating”—to use his word—about this. No more obfuscations, no more prevarications, no more lies. Indeed, no more “frankly bearing false witness.”
Tell the truth, Mr. President. Own up to your agenda—and make the case, if you can, to the American people why government funded abortion is a good thing and worthy of inclusion in healthcare reform. In fact, Mr. President, abortion is a bad thing—a very bad thing. When unborn babies get rights shouldn’t be “above” your “pay grade,” since we are “God’s partners in matters life and death.”
As for pro-life, taxpaying citizens, we should be loud and clear to our elected representatives that healthcare reform that results in the destruction of unborn human lives (to say nothing of the danger inherent to the elderly with rationed healthcare) is simply unacceptable and must be opposed.