Plan sent to Obama transition team reveals ‘abortion industry bailout’

Washington D.C., Dec 16, 2008 / 17:56 pm

A strategy document from a coalition of abortion rights groups which outlines their agenda for an Obama administration has been made public. Asking for more than $1 billion in funding, the plan seeks to overturn restrictions on the use of taxpayer funds for abortions and aspires to place pro-abortion partisans in judicial and political positions.

One pro-life organization characterized the plan as an "abortion industry bailout."

The 55-page plan, titled "Advancing Reproductive Rights and Health in a New Administration," was published on the web site of President-elect Barack Obama. It bears the label "produced by an outside party and submitted to the Obama-Biden transition project."

The plan was signed by groups which include the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, NARAL Pro-Choice America, and International Planned Parenthood Federation of America. It was also signed by a group which calls itself "Catholics for Choice."

Writing in the plan, abortion advocates call for the abolition of restrictions on taxpayer funding for abortions:

"The President’s budget should strike language restricting abortion funding for (i) Medicaid-eligible women and Medicare beneficiaries (Hyde amendment); (ii) federal employees and their dependents (FEHB program); (iii) residents of the District of Columbia; (iv) Peace Corps volunteers; (v) Native-American women; and (vi) women in federal prisons."

It asks that funding be restored to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), whose funding was rescinded under the Bush administration after private and governmental investigations revealed that the program cooperated with China’s coercive population control programs.

The abortion advocates’ plan calls for an increase in the budget of the Title X Family Planning Program to $700 million, reportedly a 133 percent increase, while providing $1 billion for international "family planning" programs.

Further, it asks that abstinence-only education be defunded in preference to "comprehensive sex education."

The document lists vacancies in the Federal Circuit Courts, urging the Obama administration to appoint judges with a "demonstrated commitment to fundamental legal protections and civil liberties, including reproductive rights."

The plan indicates "positions of interest" in the federal government where the coalition desires its partisans to be placed. It names administrative, directorial, and assistant posts within the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Justice, and the Department of State.

It also lists leadership positions within the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Equal Opportunity Commission, and the Federal Trade Commission.

On Monday the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List announced a nationwide campaign to oppose the plan, characterizing it as an "abortion industry bailout."

"President-elect Barack Obama spoke of finding ‘common ground’ on abortion policy, but abortion advocacy groups clearly see an open door," said Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser.

"After a decade of commonsense restrictions on taxpayer funding, the abortion industry thinks it deserves a bailout from President-Elect Obama," she charged. "Today the Susan B. Anthony List launched its ‘Stop the Abortion Bailout’ campaign to mobilize thousands of activists across the country."

She said the campaign will focus on encouraging citizens to write letters to their Senators to try to secure the 41 votes necessary to sustain a Senate filibuster of the abortion plan.

The campaign, she said, will "ensure our hard-earned taxpayer dollars stay out of abortionists’ coffers, especially since national abortion numbers are already on the decline."

The SBA’s campaign web site is at www.sba-list.org/abortionbailout.