Sunday 2 August 2009

Is Obama trying to mislead Pope Benedict on abortion?

Just over a week after Barack Obama met the Pope (July 10), and reportedly promised to reduce abortions, the New York Times informed us that an Obama administration official was refusing to rule out the possibility that taxpayers' money would be used to pay for abortions under proposed health care legislation. (I have frequently posted on the ways in which President Obama is following IPPF orders in promoting abortion at home and overseas - including forced abortion in China. His commitment to such policies does not appear, thus far, to be diminishing since his visit to the Pope last month. )

Citizens of the UK, where 89% of abortions carried out are funded by the Government, will have little difficulty in giving credence to Douglas Johnston's prediction - legislative director of the US's National Right to Life Committee - that tax-funded abortions "would result in the greatest expansion of abortion since Roe v. Wade," the 1973 US Supreme Court decision that established a constitutional right to abortion.

Here's an extract of what Peter R. Orszag, the White House budget director, said on Fox News, on July 19, nine days after his boss met Pope Benedict:
WALLACE: Are you prepared to say that in a government public- funded, taxpayer-funded public health insurance plan that no taxpayer money will go to pay for abortions?

ORSZAG: I think that that will wind up being part of the debate. I am not prepared to say explicitly that right now. It’s obviously a controversial issue, and it’s one of the questions that is playing out in this debate.

WALLACE: So you’re not prepared to rule out...

ORSZAG: I’m not prepared to rule it out.



Comments on this blog? Email them to johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk
Sign up for alerts to new blog-posts and/or for SPUC's other email services
Follow SPUC on Twitter
Join SPUC's Facebook group
Please support SPUC. Please donate, join, and/or leave a legacy