In a Wednesday conference call with health care reform supporters, President Barack Obama called “untrue” and “a fabrication” charges that the White House-backed legislation would result in “government funding of abortions.”
But Douglas Johnson, legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee, says it was Obama who “brazenly misrepresented the abortion-related component of the health care legislation that his congressional allies and staff have crafted.”
“As amended by the House Energy and Commerce Committee on July 30 (the Capps-Waxman Amendment), the bill backed by the White House (H.R. 3200) explicitly authorizes the government plan to cover all elective abortions,” Johnson said. “Obama apparently seeks to hide behind a technical distinction between tax funds and government-collected premiums. But these are merely two types of public funds, collected and spent by government agencies.
“The Obama-backed legislation makes it explicitly clear that no citizen would be allowed to enroll in the government plan unless he or she is willing to give the federal agency an extra amount calculated to cover the cost of all elective abortions – this would not be optional. The abortionists would bill the federal government and would be paid by the federal government. These are public funds, and this is government funding of abortion.”
NRLC’s analysis can be found here: http://www.nrlc.org/AHC/HR3200NRLCfactsheet.pdf
