Obama Speech: Abortion Not In Healthcare?
President Obama's speech last night to a joint-session of Congress was quite the ordeal. While I, personally, would not stand up during the President's speech and call him a "liar" I do have qualms over a few things he said.
Mr. Obama asserted that “no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions”. Truth is, it's not that simple and clear-cut.
This is what the NYTimes says,
Abortion opponents say tax dollars could be used to subsidize insurance that could pay for abortion. The legislation approved in the House committees seeks to avoid this by requiring that only money from premiums paid by beneficiaries be used to cover abortion.
Existing restrictions on the use of federal money for abortion would remain in place, as Mr. Obama stated. But in practice, the public and private money would all go into the same pot, and the source of money for any single procedure is largely a technicality.
Allocation, is the name of the game. The only money the federal government can spend is (drum roll please) federal money. To say abortion will be paid for through private funds instead of public is a sham! Smoke and Mirrors, if you will.
Douglas Johnson, legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee, commented:
...The reality is that the Obama-backed House bill would explicitly authorize the federal government insurance plan to pay for elective abortions and would explicitly authorize subsidies for private abortion insurance - and all with federal dollars, which are the only kind of dollars that the federal government can spend.
And on a side note: President Obama mentioned in his speech that "federal conscience laws will remain in place". Really?! I find this a bit absurd considering the White House is, right now, contemplating repealing existing regulations to enforce conscience laws. Lame.
Did you watch the Presidents speech last night? What are your thoughts? Sound off in the comments below.
About the Author
Ian Kelly is the "arm chair pundit" at Moral Outcry. He has worked full time for Bound4LIFE since 2007. His other responsibilities include local chapter development and new media communications. Besides being a political junkie, he enjoys history, sci-fi, super heroes and grilling.
