Pro-Life Leaders Respond to Passage of Health Care Bill

The American people have spoken in this debate, and yesterday our legislators spoke back.

WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) - Following last night's passage of the historic health care bill, leaders from many different parts of the pro-life world spoke out about life, freedom and the current reform.

Fr. Frank Pavone, Priests for Life

"You can't pass the right kind of laws without the right lawmakers in office," Fr. Pavone said. "America has spoken to its lawmakers about their concerns. The lawmakers have spoken back. Now it's our move again. This law will be challenged in many ways. And it's time to prepare for November's elections, so that the changes the American people see fit to make can be made."

"Yesterday I was privileged to deliver a homily at a prayer service held in the Capitol for members of Congress," Fr. Pavone added. "I spoke about the fact that authority and power mean service, and that the people whom the legislators serve are not their people, but God's people. We govern ourselves; our voices matter. Thank God that when legislators take public policy the wrong way, there are ways to remedy that. Let's get started."

The National Pro-Life Religious Council

"The American people have spoken in this debate, and yesterday our legislators spoke back. So the ball is in our court again. Pro-life people across America remain concerned about the abortion provisions in this bill, despite the President´s Executive Order. Moreover, a wider coalition of Americans opposes this legislation for other reasons. We are confident that the legislation will be challenged on many fronts, not only in public opinion but also by legal challenges. Meanwhile, the People of God should press forward in expressing their concerns, calling for corrective legislative action, and preparing for the elections in November."

Dr. Charmaine Yoest, Americans for Life Action

"Today, Congress ignored the explicit wishes of the American people by voting to establish taxpayer- funded abortion. This reversal of long-standing federal policy will not stand. Furthermore, the assurance by the White House to address the problem of abortion funding in the health care bill through use of an executive order is an open acknowledgement that the bill just passed is pro-abortion legislation.

"The AUL legal team has concluded that an executive order is not an adequate fix to mitigate this legislation's establishment of taxpayer-funded abortion. An executive order, for example, cannot prevent insurance companies that pay for abortions in the exchanges from receiving federal subsidies.

"We will work to dismantle taxpayer-funded abortion at the federal level and begin an aggressive, state-by- state campaign to help states opt out of subsidizing plans that cover abortions through their exchanges. We will also seek every opportunity to litigate this matter in the courts. Given that seven out of ten voters agree that no public funds should pay for abortion, I am confident that with hard work we will succeed."

Jim Sedlak, American Life League

"Last night the pro-life movement learned several hard lessons. Foremost among those is that it is never morally acceptable, and often it is not even politically expedient, to compromise human beings' lives in the hopes of saving some others.

"While strategists in Washington, D.C. scrambled for a Stupak Amendment to protect a status quo that fundamentally rejects the human rights of an entire class of people, the pro-life grassroots simply wanted to 'Kill the Bill.'

"The eventual passage of the health care bill, with its monumental support of child killing, exposed the foolishness of depending upon politicians to protect the lives of preborn babies.

"The American people need to preemptively take control again by declaring - in state after state across the nation - that a preborn human being is recognized as a person under the laws of their states.

"This state's rights approach will build the momentum necessary to eventually pass a federal human personhood amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

"Instead of playing the Washington, D.C. political game, the pro-life movement must unite around uncompromising human rights principles that protect the dignity and recognize the personhood of all human beings."

Brian Burch, CatholicVote.org

"I just got off the phone with the campaign director for Rep. Bart Stupak.

"I told her that the members of CatholicVote.org were appalled by his decision to cave and give President Obama control over taxpayer funding for abortion. I also told his staff that we are rescinding our invitation for him to speak at a special CatholicVote.org event scheduled in Chicago for late April.

"Rep. Stupak accepted a meaningless promise of an "Executive Order" that does not address the fundamental problems of the bill. In doing so, he not only allowed the pro-abortion bill to pass, his actions gutted any hope for a bipartisan pro-life movement that many argued would have been possible had he stood firm.

"After everything we did to support Stupak and his coalition, his actions yesterday were devastating. We were betrayed."

Dr. David Stevens, Christian Medical Association

"Millions of poor patients and those in medically underserved areas currently depend on care from faith-based hospitals, clinics and physicians who follow life-affirming ethical standards such as those found in the Hippocratic oath and the Judeo-Christian Scriptures," noted CMA CEO Dr. David Stevens.

"National polling reveals that 95 percent of faith-based physicians say they will be forced to leave medicine without conscience protections. Since the bill passed by Congress does not include strong conscience protections, it opens the door to an increase in discrimination against physicians, hospitals and clinics that decline to participate in abortion and other morally controversial procedures."

Tony Perkins, Family Research Council

"Passage of this partisan government takeover of health care with all of its Medicare cuts, tax increases, a continued marriage penalty, individual mandates, and abortion funding shows the extreme leftist orientation of this Congress.
 
"The American people, regardless of their view of its legality, should not be forced to pay for someone's abortion. Those who voted for this legislation cannot legitimately claim to be even neutral on the issue of abortion. This legislation accomplishes this abortion mandate in spades.
 
"Some Democratic Members who have had good pro-life records in the past turned away from those principles today, instead putting their trust in the most pro-abortion President in history and his equally pro-abortion Health and Human Services Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius. The President knows his promise would not have the weight of statutory law and is not worth the paper it was printed on. Any order from the President will likely quickly fall in the U.S. courts, if not reversed by Barack Obama himself."

Day Gardner, National Black Pro-Life Union

"Polls have consistently shown that America does not want this Healthcare monster for many reasons, yet, it is being shoved down our throats anyway.

"It's obvious that Democrats don't care what MOST of America wants.

"Congress needs to understand--it's not about YOU-- it's about US--we the people!
Many Americans put so much trust in Rep. Bart Stupak and the other Democrats who stood with him when they promised that they would stand firm--no matter what--to insure there would be NO taxpayer funded abortion."

Try Newman, Operation Rescue

"March 21 did indeed change life as we knew it. The tax payer will be forced to fund abortion that will now increase, ration health care, cut benefits to seniors, and pay higher taxes. Especially hard-hit will be small business owners and middle-class American families. The new law will force all Americans to buy insurance or suffer fines and create over a hundred new government bureaucracies.

"Now we can add our nation's health care system to the list of once private enterprises now under government control along with the banks, manufacturing, housing, and insurance companies.

"I won't forget the events of this day and while they heralded a change for the worst, I vow to be part of the revolution to unravel this mess. And I know I am not alone. Polls show that the majority of the people are already with us.

"While politics alone is not the cure for the social ailments that have brought us to this point, it is the vehicle we can use to insure that our changes will be lasting and protected. Let this be a clarion call to the American people that it is time to arise and reclaim our government to make it once again one that is of the people, by the people, and for the people - and that means all of us from the womb to the tomb.

Rev. Paul C.B. Schenck
National Pro-Life Action Council

"Abortion is the bad fruit of a generation that has put the "comfort" and ambitions of the individual above those of the human family and community. This is why even so-called "pro-life" politicians made "exceptions" for children of rape, incest or whose existence is perceived to threaten their mothers' lives.

"But there is something that we must take note of and be grateful for: the stalwart pro-life advocates who made abortion the controversial sticking point on the legislation. President Obama, the Planned Parenthood candidate, was forced to promise an Executive Order supporting the Hyde Amendment, a very significant development!

"Until the hearts of Americans change, and we become committed to the sanctity of all human life, the Federal Government will do little to save the weak and vulnerable. That´s why our work on Capitol Hill is so important!

"There is no doubt much of the health care reform bill will end up before federal courts. The National Pro-Life Action Center must continue to give the Justices of the US Supreme Court the information, education and inspiration they need to better form their consciences and make better decisions."

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Randy Sly is the Associate Editor of Catholic Online. He is a former Archbishop of the Charismatic Episcopal Church who laid aside that ministry to enter into the full communion of the Catholic Church.

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