Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, has been at the center of this very heated controversy about health care. She has relentlessly pushed this legislation trying to "make history."

For those that don't know the history of this bill, I'll break it down for you:

• November 7, 2009 - The House - under enormous pressure from Pelosi - passed The Affordable Health Care for America Act H.R. 3962
  • This included the Stupak-Pitts amendment which enforced long-standing law banning federal funding of abortion except in cases of rape, incest, or danger to the life of the mother.
• December 24, 2009 - The Senate passes their version of the bill - The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act H.R.3590
  • This did not include the Nelson-Hatch amendment which contained the same language as the Stupak-Pitts amendment.
• February 25, 2010 - President Obama holds his "Health Care Summit" in which nothing is really accomplished. Well... almost. More on that later.
• The current strategy is to pass the Senate version of the bill through the House, which is supposed to happen in a vote on March 18, 2010

Nancy Pelosi is - of course - putting huge pressure on pro-life Democrats that voted for the Stupak-Pitts amendment to now support the Senate bill without the anti-abortion language included.

Now it starts to get ridiculous. The one thing that was accomplished at the Health Care Summit? The country got to see first-hand just how corruptly this entire proceeding has been handled.

At the Health Care Summit, Pelosi had this to say:

The current health care reform proposal:

• Includes government funding of abortion
• Imposes a brand-new "abortion fee" on taxpayers
• Directs $11 BILLION in new funding to groups like Planned Parenthood — the nation’s largest abortion chain that took in over $349,000,000 in tax funding last year while aborting 305,310 babies
• Would result in the largest expansion of abortion since Roe v. Wade

The Family Research Council does a great job of breaking down even further exactly how this bill provides federal funding of abortion:

Eight Reasons Abortion Is in the Health Care Overhaul

1. The legislation specifically includes it. The President’s bill to amend the Senate bill leaves several abortion provisions in place. In Section 1303 it allows tax credit subsidies for plans that include abortion and leaves the abortion surcharge in place. It maintains the proposal to create a multi-state plan that includes abortion in Sec. 1334. Even worse, it would increase the Senate bill funding from $7 billion to $11 billion for community health centers in Sec. 10503 without any abortion funding restrictions.  (H.R. 3590, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.)

2. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has said it is. “And I would say that the Senate language, which was negotiated by Senators Barbara Boxer and Patty Murray, who are very strong defenders of women’s health services and choices for women, take a big step forward from where the House left it with the Stupak amendment, and I think do a good job making sure there are choices for women. . .That would be an accounting procedure, but everybody in the exchange would do the same thing, whether you’re male or female, whether you’re 75 or 25, you would all set aside a portion of your premium that would go into a fund.”  (Sebelius: Everyone will pay into abortion-coverage fund.)

3.  Senate Democrats refused to ban it. Instead of allowing for an up or down vote on a Senate amendment similar to the Stupak Amendment in the House which bans federal funding of abortion, Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) “tabled” the amendment, effectively killing it.  This was the only amendment dealt with in this way. (Vote No. 369 S.Amdt. 2962 to S.Amdt. 2786 to H.R. 3590)

4.  House Pro-life Democrats, who support a government takeover, say it is. “The Senate language is a significant departure from current law and is unacceptable.” (House Representative Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), February 23, 2010, CBS News)… “I think abortion’s wrong. The problem is that I’ve lived too long. When they say they can keep this money separate, I just don’t believe it.” (House Representative Marion Berry (D-Ark.), March 6, 2010, Arkansas News.)

5.  House Pro-abortion Democrats say it is. “The good news is that the Senate bill does allow [abortion coverage],” (Chairwoman of the House pro-abortion caucus, Dianne DeGette (D-Colo.), March 5, 2010, Washington Post.

6. The Abortion industry has sent out alerts in favor of it. The abortion giant Planned Parenthood sent out alerts on March 6, 2010: “President Obama’s health care reform proposal would make a real difference for the women and families who rely on Planned Parenthood. . . . and [the bill] significantly increase access to reproductive health care.” (Planned Parenthood alert, March 6, 2010.)

7. Candidate Obama said it would be included, and the Obama administration includes it in its definition of reproductive health care. Presidential candidate Barack Obama stated he “believes that reproductive health care is basic health care.” (Rhealitycheck.org questionnaire, 2008.)  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton followed up on this in 2009:  “Reproductive health care includes access to abortion.” (Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, April 22, House Foreign Affairs Committee Hearing)

8. House Democratic Majority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) has indicated he wants to “fix” the abortion coverage problem in the Senate bill. “House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Thursday that lawmakers could draft separate pieces of legislation with abortion language to earn the support of anti-abortion rights Democrats on healthcare reform legislation.” (March 4, 2010, The Hill)

For more resources in the health care debate, check out FRC Action’s resource page: “Standing Against the Government Takeover of Health Care.” Also check out why the Hyde Amendment does not apply to the current bill by reading “Q and A: Government Health Care and Abortion.”

At the very least, even those who support abortion should be concerned about such a blatant lie from one of the largest supporters of this bill about the most controversial issue in it!

We need to stop this bill now, before it's too late.

Tell them we don't want this bill! And hurry! We only have until March 18th to make our voices heard.

Possibly Related posts:

1. Senator Nelson Responds to Health Care Concerns
2. Sen. Bill Nelson did NOT represent us today
3. My Open Letter to Senator Bill Nelson