AUL

Dear Friend,

If Congressional leaders have their way, sweeping health care reform legislation will force American taxpayers to fund abortion-on-demand. A few days ago I had a chance to explain this to the country in an article in The Wall Street Journal entitled: “Tax Dollars Shouldn’t Fund Abortion”:

Democratic leaders claim that all they want is to maintain the "status quo" on abortion. In reality, maintaining what we have now isn't even on the table. To do that, a health-care bill would have to explicitly prevent federal dollars from being used for elective abortions. Provisions that would have done that were killed by all five committees that have handled health-care reform bills this year. Instead, the abortion compromise in the works is a provision modeled on an amendment Rep. Lois Capps (D., Calif.) added to the House bill.

The Capps Amendment is a radical departure from the status quo. As it stands now, the federal government does not pay into health-care plans that cover elective abortions. What's more, no government health plans cover elective abortion, period. That includes Medicaid, the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, the State Children's Health Insurance Program, and other programs.


At Americans United for Life we are working tirelessly to alert the American people to the truth: that the health care reform proposals being pushed by Congressional leaders would mandate taxpayer funding or abortion.

But time is running out. The White House is pressuring Congress to rush through a health care bill that currently would force all American taxpayers to subsidize abortion on demand.

Your contribution NOW will help us continue this critical fight during the final weeks of the health care debate. The need could not be more urgent.

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

P.S. 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 in the News

* Wall Street Journal: "Tax Dollars Shouldn't Fund Abortion" by Dr. Charmaine Yoest

* PBS TV: "Abortion and Health Care Reform" Interview with Dr. Charmaine Yoest [Here is the extended interview.]

* Focus on the Family: "Wall Street Journal Op-Ed Focuses on Abortion in Health-Care Reform."

* RedState.com: New Hard-Hitting Health Care Ad: “Don’t Be Fooled”

* Hillsboro Times Gazette: "Tax dollars should not fund abortions"

* Christianity Today: "Pass More State Laws" by Dr. Charmaine Yoest

* Catholic Exchange: "Pro-life leader calls health care proposals a ‘radical departure’ from current abortion policy"

* LifeNews.com: "Pro-Life Group Pans Baucus Bill, Launches New Ad on Abortion and Health Care"

* Focus on the Family: "Good News: Video Explains Perils of Abortion in Health-Care Reform"


AUL Responds to Attacks By Pro-Abortion Media Matters:

Meanwhile, abortion advocates continue to spread misinformation about how the health care reform proposals before Congress mandate abortion funding and coverage. Last Wednesday, the pro-abortion “Media Matters” posted an attack on our ad, “Don’t Be Fooled, Abortion is in Healthcare.” In their attack, they failed to directly dispute the accuracy of any of the statements from our ad in fact, they simply pasted in statements made by other sources that fail to give the complete picture of current law and how that law will be affected by any of the existing health care proposals.

Our legal team has written a detailed defense of each of the statements that we made in our ad. The defense examines many little-known facts about the current health care reform proposals, including:

Individuals who qualify to receive “affordability credits” (federal dollars) to help pay their insurance premiums may then select health care plans that cover abortion. The end result federal dollars subsidize health care plans that cover abortion. . . .

[T]he [Capps] amendment permits the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to include elective abortion (Sec. (4)(A)) as a mandatory minimum benefit in the public option. There is little doubt that abortion will be included in the public option, given the proabortion stance of the current Secretary of HHS, Kathleen Sebelius . . .

[F]or the first time in history, the federal government will ensure that every area of the country has access to a private health insurance plan that includes abortion coverage.

To view our detailed analysis, please go to our blog.