Washington D.C., Aug 19, 2009 / 16:00 pm
Just ahead of President Obama's evening teleconference to promote his health care reform initiative to some faith-based groups, Tony Perkins, the president of the group Family Research Council Action, held a conference call with reporters to discuss the need to prevent abortion from being funded by the government under the guise of health care reform.
Referring to the current legislation being considered by Congress, Perkins said, "We readily acknowledge that if you do a word search of the thousand-plus-page bill, you won't find the word ‘abortion.’ You also won't find the word ‘tonsilectomy,’ nor will you find the word ‘bypass.’
"But you will find 'essential health care services,' and when you follow the trail to how this administration defines that, they include reproductive health care, which this administration readily admits includes abortion," Perkins stated to reporters.
As part of its campaign to inform voters about the health care bill, Perkins announced the launch of a second TV ad that will air in five states. The ad criticizes provisions in the health care bill that FRC Action says "will lead to rationing, explicitly allow abortion coverage in the public health plan and subsidize health plans that cover abortion."
The first FRC Action TV ad, "After a Government Health Care Takeover," was released two weeks ago, and is currently running on cable news in five states including Arkansas, Nebraska, Louisiana,
Alaska, and Pennsylvania.
Perkins explained that those specific states were chosen because they are "conservative states" that have a "strong pro-life, pro-family population" that can sway their representatives.
When he was asked if he thought the current tenor of the debate over health care showed a lack of civility, Perkins replied that he believed it shows "a lack of respect from government leaders to people across this country who have strong convictions."
The FRC Action leader called on faith leaders and people of faith to: urge their elected officials to place conscience protections in the bill for pro-life health care providers, prevent abortions from being paid with taxpayer money and ensure that the government doesn't get into the business of rationing.
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