Only YOU Can Prevent Abortion Funding

Much has been made of the Baucus Bill, an amendment to the current health care proposal currently being debated. Proponents of the bill, sponsored by Max Baucus, democratic senator from Montana and chair of the powerful Senate Committee on Finance, say it will disallow abortion funging in the current health care debate.

But prominent pro-life groups, including National Right to Life and Americans United for Life, are skeptical.

LifeSite News reports:

"National Right to Life noted yesterday that the Baucus bill—known as the America's Healthy Future Act—‘contains an array of pro-abortion mandates and federal subsidies for elective abortion.’

Americans United for Life has also released an analysis saying the bill ‘deals with the issue of abortion by incorporating similar language to the Capps amendment to H.R. 3200, which does not explicitly exclude abortion coverage and funding; in fact, the Capps Amendment mandates abortion funding.’

‘This bill provides $6 billion for the establishment of health insurance cooperatives which would be permitted to cover abortion,’ AUL president Charmaine Yoest told LifeNews.com late Wednesday.

‘Under the Baucus bill, abortions permitted under the Hyde amendment (currently in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother) can be mandated in the minimum benefits package,’ she explained. ‘If the Hyde Amendment is ever eliminated, the Baucus bill would mandate coverage for all abortions.’”

What Can You Do?

• Be skeptical when someone tells you a proposal doesn’t allow abortion just because there’s not specific language allowing it. Funding for abortion must be specifically disallowed and an enforcement mechanism in place. Abortion is big business, and those who profit from the murder of innocents won't go peacefully away.
• Write your congressmen regularly. I recommend using the template provided by the National Right to Life found here.
• Don’t let leaders rush into health care. If the current proposals are defeated altogether, then well and good.

If you were in the market for a house, would you buy the first one you saw because it had four walls and a roof? No? Then consider that that has been your elected officials’ response to health care.

The problems with health care didn’t appear overnight, but instead of taking time (years, perhaps) deciding 1) what’s needed, 2) what’s financially possible, 3) what’s responsible, and 4) what’s effective, they’re attempting to rush willy-nilly into “buying” the first house they see.

These folks work for you! Hold their feet to the fire until you’re satisfied that every American man, woman, and child can live with the trillions of dollars this will cost.

Ask at every step:

· How are life issues dealt with? According to Catholic social teaching, which respects life from conception to natural death? Or according to the slippery-slope moral relativism that characterizes our current government?

· Is this fiscally sustainable? Can it be financed as we go along or are we passing the cost to our children and grandchildren?

· Who is covered? Does it create an incentive for people to behave illegally and/or immorally?

· Does it mesh with free-market principles or are the principles being promoted socialist in nature?

· Will it allow the government greater control over our lives? If so, how much control is acceptable?