AUL

Dear Friend,

You may have heard that this past weekend, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “This Week” that President Obama has explicitly ruled out abortion out of whatever health care bill he signs:

STEPHANOPOULOS: “So you are saying that he will go beyond what we have seen in the House and explicitly rule out any public funding for abortion?”
SEBELIUS: “Well that’s exactly what the President said and that’s what he intends that the bill he signs will do.”

Well, you know how they say, “Show me the money”? When I hear a statement like that from Sebelius who as governor of Kansas received hundreds of thousands in donations from the abortion lobby I say, “Show me how you’re blocking the money.” Because the truth is that, although President Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have all claimed that the health care proposals do not cover abortion, that is simply not accurate. Unless abortion funding is explicitly excluded from the health care bill, the courts will mandate coverage. This is clear to anyone who has studied the history of government-funded health care, and it’s misleading to play a linguistics game with the pro-life community by claiming abortion is not in the bills when they fully understand that it is.

AULA Heads to the White House Tomorrow

It’s not enough for President Obama to claim he won’t sign a bill that directs taxpayers’ money towards abortion, there has to be an explicit exclusion of abortion in the final bill. . . and we have the opportunity to discuss the issue with his domestic policy team directly. This Thursday, September 17, I am meeting at the White House with Melody Barnes, President Obama’s Domestic Policy Advisor, and Tina Tchen, who directs the White House Council on Women and Girls.

Our message will be very simple: Real health care respects life . . . and the American people do not want to subsidize abortion as part of health care.

The White House invited us to the meeting after we sent an open letter to President Obama about health care reform and our concerns about the anti-life elements currently included. The letter outlines the issues we plan to raise: the current health care reform bills’ mandating government funding of abortion, their insufficient provisions for conscience protection, and the risk the bills carry of denial of care for the elderly.

The meeting also gives us the opportunity to take the “Keep Abortion Out of Health Care” petition directly to the White House!
Petition to President Obama - Keep Abortion OUT of Health Care!
Petition to the President

I will give the petition to Melody Barnes, directly - she is the President’s top domestic policy advisor. If you haven’t already signed, please take a minute to add your name to the thousands of pro-life Americans already there. And if you could also forward this email to two friends, asking them to sign. I urge you to sign the petition before Thursday you’ll find it on AULA’s health care reform Web site, RealHealthCareRespectsLife.com. We’ll make your voice heard at the White House!

Another important means of influencing Congress to include protections for life in health care legislation is the “Voided Check” campaign of the Stop the Abortion Mandate Coalition (of which AUL is a proud member). Click on the “Voided Check” at StopTheAbortionMandate.com to contact your elected representatives and tell them you don’t want the government funding abortion.

Thank you for joining me in protecting and defending life!

For Life,
Charmaine Yoest Charmaine
Charmaine Yoest, Ph.D.
President & CEO

P.S. If you are planning to attend the Values Voter Summit this week here in Washington, please let us know -- we’d love to meet you at AUL’s Open House event Thursday night after our White House meeting.

P.P.S. Let me know what you think! You can follow me on Twitter and Facebook, and follow AUL on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. We're also reachable by e-mail at info@aul.org

AUL on the BBC
AUL Senior Counsel William Saunders, during a recent trip to England, was featured on BBC Radio, giving a pro-life legal perspective on euthanasia, in an interview that you can hear online. During that same trip, he discussed AUL’s work in two talks at the annual convention of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, and attended International Right to Life's board meeting as the group’s U.S. board member. As a result of the International Right to Life meeting, AUL will be preparing legal briefs and analyses for United Nations and European Union.

AUL in the News

* Jake Tapper of ABC News reports on AULA’s upcoming visit to the White House: White House to Meet With Anti-Abortion Activists Next Week
* CBN’s David Brody blogs on AULA’s meeting: White House Officials to Meet With Pro-Life Group on Health Care and Abortion
* LA Times interviews Dr. Charmaine Yoest about AUL’s concerns about abortion in the health care proposals: Abortion foes aren't buying Obama's assurances
* AUL’s Senior Vice President of Legal Affairs William Saunders writes about the “Showdown in Montana” at The Catholic Thing.
* AUL's Senior Counsel Clarke Forsythe wrote in "The Blackmun Myth: Pro-lifers should be realistic about their short-term goals" in National Review Online.