Catholic League: Obama Chooses Pro-Abortion Zealot for HHS

The head of the Nation's Premier defender of the Rights of Catholic Citizens calls the appointment an offense against Catholics.

NEW YORK (Catholic League) - Catholic League president Bill Donohue speaks to the nomination of Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius as the new secretary for health and human services (HHS):

"Last week, President Obama called Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan to congratulate him on his appointment as the new archbishop of New York, effective April 15. That was a nice statement. But it didn't cost him anything.

"His appointment of Kathleen Sebelius--one of the most extreme pro-abortion zealots in the nation--to head HHS was not a nice statement. And it will cost him.

"Catholics do not expect that abortion-rights presidents will go out of their way to choose pro-life Catholics to be in their administration. But they also don't expect them to go out of their way to offend them. Obama has done just that.

"As I said last night on the CBS Evening News, 'She is the champion of abortion rights right through term, and for Obama to choose somebody who sews such division within the Catholic community to head HHS really is an insult to Catholics.' Indeed, she has been publicly criticized by the last three archbishops of Kansas for her radical views on abortion.

"Sebelius is best friends with Dr. George Tiller, one of the most radical abortion doctors in American history. She has wined and dined him, and has accepted money from him. The fact that he has performed more than 60,000 abortions doesn't faze her. None of which bodes well given her duties at HHS.

"Moreover, she has worked against the health-care rights of women: she refused to license abortion clinics in Kansas.

"Sebelius once signed a law that calls for the killer of a pregnant woman to be charged with two murders. Someone should ask her who the other person is."

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The Catholic League is the nation's largest Catholic civil rights organization. Founded in 1973 by the late Father Virgil C. Blum, S.J., the Catholic League defends the right of Catholics – lay and clergy alike – to participate in American public life without defamation or discrimination. It is led by its' President, William A. Donohue, Ph.D.