Recently in Abortion Category

Little did I know when I started writing about Halloween that new "research" by the Christian Broadcasting Network uncovered that witches were contaminating Halloween candy and allowing demons to be ingested by "Trick or Treaters."  But here it is.

Now moving on to Planned Parenthood.  I think it is morally outrageous that one of the most well-respected sources of information on sexuality and pregnancy prevention is given so little government funding, and that their clinics providing abortion services are not funded by the federal government at all.  Why Congressman Mike Pence wants to cut funding even more is beyond me. Does he want young people to remain ignorant of human sexuality, or would he prefer they learn about it by finding their father's stash of old Playboy magazines? We are either going to be honest with young people or we have nobody to blame but ourselves when things go wrong.

Obviously, I am not privy to the details of your lawsuit regarding one or more Planned Parenthood affiliates' alleged "over billing."  It seems that the state of California has already conceded that the rules were unclear and doubt that Planned Parenthood will ever owe anything.  In addition, the state was apparently investigating this even before your "whistleblower" suit.  We'll see where all this goes.

Barry, we don't get a lot of calls about Halloween.  Over the years, it's not something we hear much about.  And this year is no exception.  What we are hearing about from a lot of folks, though, is the continued frustration and concern about the use of taxpayer dollars to fund organizations like Planned Parenthood - the nation's largest abortion provider.

A recent example is what's taking place in Ohio where a local government body approved a $50,000 grant to Planned Parenthood to provide 'sex education' in public schools.  

At the national level, as Planned Parenthood continues to receive hundreds of millions of federal taxpayer dollars each year, debate is intensifying over whether the organization should receive ANY federal funds in the future.  In Congress, Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana has introduced H.R. 614 which would prohibit federal dollars from going to Planned Parenthood.

Sadly, I had to miss this year's edition of the Religious Right's "family values" festival -- the Values Voters Summit here in Washington.  I was engaging in my own celebration of family values by participating in my son's wedding out in California.  Now that was a great event.

I've been reading many accounts of the Summit and saw a bit of it on C-SPAN.  Last year, the big news was that "pro-family" Sarah Palin had just been nominated as the Republican vice presidential candidate.  She didn't show up then, but she was busy campaigning elsewhere.  Palin didn't show up this year either, but unless she doesn't realize the election is over, she must have decided that she had better places to be even now.  

However, not to forego the Right's newly found feminism, two of this year's most awaited speakers were women.  De-crowned Miss California-USA Carrie Prejean showed up to explain how her whole beauty pageant history was some kind of divine plan.  Apparently, God got in touch with blogger Perez Hilton to convince him to ask her the same-sex marriage question that she claims lost her the Miss USA title. Not to worry, though. She noted she will be getting a "bigger crown" later, presumably in heaven.

The bill  introduced to reform health care by Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) has splintered the Democrats and so far has no support among Republicans.  As reported earlier, Senators Grassley and Enzi, in fact, have expressed concerns about the abortion provisions. 

Based on our initial reading, we too have concerns with the abortion provisions in this bill.

First, with regards to a minimum benefits package, p. 25 of the bill states that abortion "cannot be a mandated benefit as part of a minimum benefits package except in those cases for which Federal funds appropriated for the Department of Health and Human Services are permitted."  We are concerned that, if the Hyde Amendment is scrapped by the pro-abortion Congress, then abortion on demand could be mandated as a minimum benefit.  Since 1976, the Hyde Amendment has been added each year to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) appropriations bill.  The amendment prevents federal funding of abortion, except in limited circumstances.  However, Congress could, at some point, fail to add the Hyde Amendment to the HHS appropriations bill, thus eliminating its protections.

Barry, even as another health care plan is being introduced into Congress, there's a continuing - and a very real - concern about the issue of abortion.

Senators Michael Enzi of Wyoming and Charles Grassley of Iowa have expressed their concern to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus who is offering his own health care measure.  Senators Enzi and Grassley are correctly concerned about the lack of language in the bill.

According to the New York Times report:

Mr. Enzi and Mr. Grassley also told Mr. Baucus that health legislation must include language affirmatively prohibiting the use of federal money to pay for abortion. The restriction, they said, should apply to any subsidies that help low-income people buy insurance. In addition, they said, health plans should not be obliged to provide abortion. Thus, they said, the bill should "include a conscience clause to protect entities from being required to contract with abortion providers."