Boehner calling Obama's bluff on abortion
Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow - 6/21/2010 4:00:00 AM
Despite a presidential executive order, abortion will be part of healthcare reform -- at least according to a non-response from an inquiry sent to President Obama.
The executive order -- signed by President Barack Obama in the days leading up to congressional passage of his healthcare reform package -- banned federal funds from being used for abortion. At the time, pro-lifers and other conservatives dismissed the order as basically meaningless, pointing out a presidential order could not overrule federal law.
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) recently sent a letter to the White House asking for a status report on the effectiveness of the order. Tom McCluskey of the Family Research Council Action says Boehner is, in effect, calling the president's bluff.
"I think what House Leader John Boehner...was trying to do was push away the curtain of the façade President Obama tried to push for this executive order on abortion and show that he wasn't really serious about it," McCluskey elaborates.
Boehner did not receive a response to his letter. McCluskey believes the administration wants to ignore the issue.
"To the president," he says, "this is a non-issue. His abortion allies got exactly what they wanted: taxpayer funding and public subsidies of abortion in the healthcare bill. He doesn't need to worry about pro-lifers like Bart Stupak or John Boehner or anybody else." Stupak, a professed "pro-lifer" from Michigan, was instrumental in rallying other Democrats to pass the healthcare reform bill after the executive order was signed.
The FRC Action spokesman says the fact the executive order banned the funds means nothing -- and that what does matter is elections and that people should remember the false executive order when they go to the polls in November.