President Obama went on BlogTalkRadio yesterday to address health care reform. At one point he told the left-wing religious audience, “You’ve heard that this is all going to mean government funding of abortion. Not true.”
Catholic League president Bill Donohue replied as follows:
On July 17, the House Committee on Ways and Means approved the America’s Health Choices Act (H.R. 3200). In the course of the debate, it considered the following amendment, sponsored by Rep. Eric Cantor:
No funds authorized under this Act (or an amendment made by this Act) may be used to pay for an abortion or to cover any part of the costs of any health plan that includes coverage of abortion, except in the case where a woman suffers from a physical disorder, physical injury, or physical illness that would, as certified by a physician, place the woman in danger of death unless an abortion is performed, including a life-endangering physical condition caused by or arising from the pregnancy itself, or unless the pregnancy is the result of an act of forcible rape or incest.
In other words, the amendment barred “government funding of abortion.” It failed: 19 voted for it and 22 voted against it.
Obama said yesterday that there is “a lot of misinformation” about this issue. So which is it? Was he lying when he said there would be no government funding of abortion? Or was he just misinformed? If it’s the latter, then someone needs to get him up to speed real fast. If it’s the former, then we have the makings of an ethical crisis in the White House.
