THE HEALTH CARE REFORM BILL IS EXPECTED TO BE MARKED UP IN ONE HOUR

WORD HAS JUST COME FROM OUR FRIENDS IN WASHINGTON THAT A “DEAL” HAS BEEN STRUCK BY MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE ENERGY AND COMMERCE COMMITTEE, CHAIRED BY REP. HENRY WAXMAN, (D-CA).

The "BLUE DOG DEMOCRATS" HAVE CAVED TO THE DEMOCRAT LEADERSHIP AND THE HEALTH CARE REFORM BILL IS EXPECTED TO BE MARKED UP IN ONE HOUR WITH THE EXPECTATION THAT IT WILL PASS OUT OF COMMITTEE TODAY!!

THEIR AIM IS TO HAVE THE BILL REPORTED TO THE FLOOR FOR A VOTE BEFORE THEY LEAVE FOR THE AUGUST RECESS.

YOU CAN HELP STOP THIS! CLICK ON THIS LINK FOR THE LIST OF MEMBERS OF THE ENERGY AND COMMERCE COMMITTEE AND START CALLING NOW!

Please Ask Your Member of Congress to Oppose Any and All Health Care Legislation That Does Not Specifically Exclude Abortion Coverage

If enacted in the current form, the proposed legislation in the House and Senate will mandate that virtually every single American will eventually have health insurance that includes abortion coverage.

Please read

HHS Comment Deadline is Fast Approaching

April 1, 2009

…..SPECIAL ALERT…..

HHS Comment Deadline is Fast Approaching

If you haven't sent your comments to HHS regarding President Obama's intention to rescind the Leavitt/Bush regulation enforcing protection of the rights of conscience of health care providers and institutions, please do so right away.

The comment period ends on April 9!

Protection for the rights of health care personnel to refuse to act in violation of their consciences must be retained in HHS regulations. No one should be threatened with job loss or any other type of discrimination because of their ethical, moral or religious beliefs.

The Department of Health and Human Services has published the following announcement in the Federal Register: Rescission of the Regulation Entitled "Ensuring That Department of Health and Human Services Funds Do Not Support Coercive or Discriminatory Policies or Practices in Violation of Federal Law." [Click here to view the Federal Register announcement. At the top of the page you will see the reference. At the bottom you will see "View this document." You can click on either the PDF or HTML version.]

Comments may be submitted in the following ways: Electronically via e-mail to proposedrescission@hhs.gov via regular, express, or overnight mail sent to:

Office of Public Health and Human Services, Attention: Rescission Proposal Comments, Hubert H. Humphrey Building, 200 Independence Avenue, SW., Room 716G, Washington, DC 20201, or by hand or courier delivery to the same address and dropped in the mail drop slots in the main lobby. [The building is accessible only to persons with federal government identification.]

Comments sent via facsimile will not be accepted.

The Leavitt/Bush regulation required any entity, including individuals, receiving federal funds through HHS to certify their compliance with federal laws protecting health care providers and personnel from discrimination because of their refusal to participate in or abet in any way the performance of abortion or any other medical actions they find morally or religiously objectionable.

Several federal laws protect the rights of conscience of health care providers. The Church Amendments and the Hyde/Weldon Amendment to the Labor/HHS annual appropriations bill are described in the Federal Register.

Please send in your comments. Please circulate this information among your friends and colleagues, with special attention to anyone you know who works in the medical, biomedical, or pharmaceutical field.

Thank you!

Never forget that you were once an embryo.

Follow-up on Brownback Amendments to the State/Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill

The roll call votes on the Brownback Amendments reveals the usual suspects among Republican Senators – those who almost always side with the pro-abortion Democrats. Voting against Senator Brownback’s efforts to protect the taxpayers from being coerced into paying for abortions were:

Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe (ME), Lisa Murkowski (AK), Richard Lugar (IN), Gordon Smith (OR), Arlen Specter (PA), Ted Stevens (AK), and John Warner (VA)

John Warner has announced that he will not run for re-election. Gordon Smith is said to be vulnerable to a challenge. Ted Stevens is under investigation due to charges of corruption. Opportunities are emerging to replace these people with candidates who respect life, or at the very least, respect the rights of American taxpayers from being forced into complicity with abortion through their tax dollars.

Last night the Senate voted to pass H.R. 2764 as amended, Dept. of State/Foreign Ops Approps by a vote of 81-12. The Roll Call vote is posted here: http://senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=1&vote=00325#position

As you know, Senator Brownback successfully offered an amendment to reinstate the Kemp-Kasten provision (regarding forced or coerced abortions). That amendment was agreed to by a vote of 48-45. Roll Call posted here: www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=1&vote=00318.

Unfortunately, the bill contained language that greatly undermined the Mexico City policy. This language makes international family planning “in-kind” contributions available to foreign organizations that promote and/or perform abortions. Senator Brownback offered a second amendment to strike this language but it failed 41-53. Roll Call vote is posted here: http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=1&vote=00320.

Senator Boxer offered an amendment to provide both “in-kind” and cash grants and contracts to foreign organizations that promote and/or perform abortion. The Boxer amendment was agreed to by a vote of 53-41. Roll Call is posted here: www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=1&vote=00319.

Leader McConnell submitted a statement regarding these important issues for the record reiterating his desire to reinstate the Mexico City Policy so that the President can sign the Foreign Operations Appropriations measure into law. As you’re all aware, the President has issued a veto threat towards any amendments that undermine the Administration’s pro-life policies.

Ask Senators to vote from Senator Brownback's Amendment to H.R. 2764

Please contact your U.S. Senators right away.

Ask them to vote FOR Senator Brownback’s Amendments to the 2008 State/ Foreign Operations Appropriations
Bill (H.R. 2764).

Democrats, with the help of some liberal Republicans, have included language in the bill that would remove prohibitions on taxpayer funding for organizations overseas that perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning. They also would remove the Kemp-Kasten law, passed more than two decades ago, that prohibits U.S. taxpayer dollars from going to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the agency that supports the coercive one-child population control program of Communist China.

The Brownback Amendment would strike the offending language, reaffirm that the United States will not support abortion as a method of family planning, and would restore the Kemp-Kasten language.

CAPITOL SWITCHBOARD
202/224-3121

U.S. Senate to vote on S-CHIP coverage of "unborn child"

From Alert from National Right to Life:

The U.S. Senate is likely to vote on Thursday, August 2, on an amendment to be offered by pro-life Senator Wayne Allard (R-Co.), to ensure coverage of the "unborn child" under a major federal-state health insurance program.

The Senate is considering legislation to reauthorize and expand the State Children's Health Insurance (SCHIP) program, which supplies funds to states to provide health services to children. Under a regulation issued by the Bush Administration in 2002, states are allowed to extend this coverage to unborn children -- this is referred to as "the SCHIP unborn child rule."

Eleven (11) states have taken advantage of this option. They are Arkansas, California, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin.

The bill before the Senate (called the "Baucus substitute") contains language saying that the bill neither confirms nor denies the validity of the unborn child rule. National Right to Life strongly supports the Allard Amendment, which would "codify" the unborn child rule. That is, the amendment would write into the law explicit language to clarify that a covered child “includes, at the option of a State, an unborn child.” The amendment further defines “unborn child” as “a member of the species Homo sapiens, at any stage of development, who is carried in the womb.”

To read NRLC's complete letter to the Senate in support of the Allard Amendment, click here.

To view or download the letter in PDF format, click here.

IMMEDIATE ACTION REQUESTED

Please call your two U.S. senators today and urge them to "support the Allard unborn child amendment to the SCHIP reauthorization bill." To see the appropriate phone numbers for your two U.S. senators, along with talking points and an instant-feedback form, please click here.

U.S. SENATE TO VOTE ON EXPANSION OF FUNDING FOR ESCR

PLEASE CALL YOUR SENATORS MONDAY MORNING!

CAPITOL SWITCHBOARD – 202/224-3121

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