URGENT: An update on the abortion mandate:

It's crunch time and the stakes are life and death.Call your Representatives and Senators.

CHESAPEAKE (Catholic Online) - This morning I first heard that the pro-life efforts had achieved a small victory in Congress last night by passing the Stupak-Pitts amendment that would make sure private insurance plans were not mandated to provide abortion coverage. Then I heard that the same amendment had been defeated. Both are true, and it's vital that people understand what happened.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee voted on the Stupak-Pitts amendment and passed it - narrowly. Then a few hours later, Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) brought the amendment to the floor for consideration again, and this time, Bart Gordon (D-TN) changed his mind and his vote to "no" and it was enough to defeat the amendment by a vote of 30 to 29. Makes you wonder what sort of conversation Waxman and Gordon had in those few hours, eh?

The Weekly Standard blog has an article detailing more specifics of this story, and I encourage everyone to read it. (Waxman Strong-arms Vote... http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblog)

Once again, an amendment designed to ensure that abortion coverage is not mandated and funded through tax dollars was defeated by Democrats. Again, the bottom line is crystal clear: this Administration and Congress are simply determined to make sure that taxpayer-funded abortion coverage is mandated in their health care bill.

They have no interest in listening to or even hearing the voices of those Americans who do not want to pay for the killing of the unborn through their tax dollars. They have no interest in "common ground."

It is critical that we not be lulled into relaxing our opposition to this bloody mandate. We must keep writing and emailing and calling our Representatives to demand that abortion coverage be explicitly excluded from the language of any health care legislation.

Sadly, the mainstream media are not going to tell you the truth about this fight for life, so do not be fooled by what you're NOT hearing. The mandate is real and it is being advanced with bullying and manipulative tactics.

Call your Representatives and Senators. Write letters on paper and mail them the old-fashioned way- they tend to have a greater impact than emails. Make phone calls. Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper. And stay informed.

It's crunch time and the stakes are life and death.

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Jennifer Hartline is a Catholic Army wife and stay-at-home mother of three precious kids who writes frequently on topics of Catholic faith and daily living. She is a contributing writer for Catholic Online. She covered this historic webcast on special assignment.

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