Pelosi Lies About Abortion: Catholic Bishops Agree Pelosi Lies

We've never known Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to dodge a lie if she can help it. At last week's health care summit she objected to Rep. John Boehner's statement that the health care bill would end 30 years of prohibition against taxpayer funding of abortion. As members of her own Party insist abortion-funding is in legislation, and Catholic Bishops agree, Pelosi faced the Nation and told a whopper.

Nancy Pelosi

The Speaker said Boehner was "misleading" the country. It's time for a public smackdown between the two, because either Boehner or Pelosi are lying. The Catholic church points the finger directly at the Speaker:

[PELOSI] “I think it’s really important to note, though, and I want the record to show, because two statements were made here that were not factual in relationship to these bills,' Pelosi claimed.

"My colleague, Leader Boehner, the law of the land is there is no public funding of abortion and there is no public funding of abortion in these bills and I don't want our listeners or viewers to get the wrong impression from what you said," Pelosi asserted.

Just as The Speaker continues to insist that the CIA lied about her "interrogation briefings, she can't decide whether to tell the truth - the Church isn't important - or continue the lies. In December 2009, Pelosi spoke her truth, saying "the free will" of women wanting abortions outweighs pro-life Catholic teachings. I'm not Catholic and I have only a little knowledge about how the Church handles their high-profile wayward strays - but can't help wondering if Pelosi is still receiving Sacraments. From Hot Air:

Here’s Canon 915, withholding communion from those “obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin.” The defense, presumably, is that participating in abortion might be a sin but merely supporting laws that legalize the practice doesn’t quite rise to that level.

In the original House bill the Stupak amendment removed any possibility of taxpayer-funded abortion, which allowed about 40 Democrats to support the bill. Their vote, contrary to the confidence the Speaker is showing,  may not be there for her the next time around.

Another report from CNSNews quotes Pelosi, a Catholic, on Friday, February 23rd, saying she has spoken to "Catholic bishops" and she indicates that she has assured the Church there is no public funding for taking the life of a baby.

“Law prevents federal funding, and federal law prevents federal funding of abortion,” said Pelosi. “There is no federal funding of abortion in this bill. There’ll be no expansion or diminution of a woman’s right to choose and that does not happen in this bill, and we’re determined that we are going to pass health care reform.” 

“This bill that passed the Senate does not have federal funding of abortion,” said Pelosi. 

But the Church is not buying what the Speaker is pitching.

Richard Doerflinger, associate director for the U.S. Conference of Catholic bishops (USCCB) told CNSNews that the Senate bill and the President's proposal does allow taxpayers to pay for health care coverage that covers abortion. The Catholic church is supportive of health care, up to the inclusion of abortion funding. Read the Conference of Bishops 13-page document stating that the Senate bill does allow for government-funded abortion.

Douglas Johnson, the National Right to Life Committee said Pelosi has "just repeated the same deceptive claptrap...denial and deception."

Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) said the "Senate language is a departure from current law and is unacceptable."

Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-CA), a member of the Blue Dog Coalition, says Obama's bill lacks anti-abortion language, and the bill does nothing to cut costs.

Echoing the Republican voices at the health care summit, some fiscally conservative Democrats are asking for smaller measures - a less ambitious bill, "take two or three or four issues on which everyone agrees and build on it," said Frank Kratovil (D-MD).  Rep. Altmire asks the question all of us are asking: why is Obama bothering?

Others, like Representative Jason Altmire, a Pennsylvania Democrat who also voted against the House bill, seem to wonder aloud why Mr. Obama is bothering. With so many Democrats feeling nervous about their past votes in favor of the health bill, Mr. Altmire said, he can imagine vote-switching in only one direction: from yes to no.

...And I know of a handful of yes votes who regret it and would relish the opportunity to put a no vote on the board so they could go back home and talk about that.”

Since these are not easy issues to explain, and since the President acknowledged the Nation's dismay at a 2400-page piece of legislation, which he likely knows no one can understand, Richard Foerflinger explains how we know that abortion is a part of the bill and proposal. Here are the important talking points:

While the Senate bill includes some language limiting the direct use of tax credits to subsidize abortion coverage, it still violates longstanding federal precedent on abortion funding in two ways.” 

”First, the Senate’s abortion language limits only the use of tax credits for abortion in qualified health plans, not other funding in the bill,” he said.

...the Senate bill will indirectly fund abortion through community health centers, adding that the President Obama’s identical proposal on abortion funding will add more money to that cause. 

“For example, the bill authorizes and appropriates $7 billion for services at community health centers (increased to $11 billion in the President’s new proposal),” said Doerflinger. “The Hyde amendment does not prevent direct use of these billions of dollars for elective abortions (because the funds are not provided through the appropriations bill governed by Hyde), nor does any provision in the Senate bill.”

“Second, the Senate’s language on tax credits still allows subsidies for overall health plans that cover elective abortions, against the policy of the Hyde amendment and other longstanding federal laws,” said Doerflinger.

“The bill requires each American purchasing such a plan to make a separate payment to the insurer every month, solely to pay for other people’s abortions,” he said. “This is an enormous imposition on the consciences of the millions of Americans who oppose abortion.”

We have not heard Barack Obama try to set the record straight for Nancy. He obviously has not called her to the White House and admonished her for lying to the people he leads. It's disgraceful, considering he clearly knows what these bills do and do not do - and he is the President, and he knows the deep emotion attached to taxpayer-funded abortion. How about admitting what is in the bill, and then taking the vote - and it is, what it is? The Democrat leadership is lying directly to the Nation.



Nancy Pelosi on Abortion and the Health Care Bill (video)