'Abortion crushes hope,' says Rep. Chris Smith at health care press conference

Washington D.C., Oct 21, 2009 / 17:06 pm

Pro-life leaders gathered in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the danger of federally-funded abortion being a part of health care reform.  One speaker, Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), said that although President Obama ran his presidential campaign on “hope,” “abortion crushes hope” and is “its polar opposite.”

The press conference took place at the House Triangle, a grassy triangular area near the Capitol Building.  Others present were: Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), Representatives Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Mike Pence (R-Ind.) as well as the organizations Focus on the Family Action, Susan B. Anthony List, National Right to Life Committee, Family Research Council and Concerned Women for America.

Rep. Smith addressed the crowd on the prospect of federal funds being used to pay for abortions under new health care reform measures. He began by noting that President Barack Obama led his campaign based on “hope,” but that “abortion is the antithesis of hope.”

“Abortion is violence against children, and a serious human rights violation—not hope,” he added.

Turning his focus to mothers, Smith explained that abortion also crushes the “hope and the spirit of women,” and that the government needs to “defend women from abortionists, not publicly fund and facilitate this insidious exploitation of women.”

“The myriad of word games routinely employed to divert attention from the gruesome reality of abortion and its deleterious consequences to women and children are now being used to suggest that the public somehow isn’t being coerced into funding and facilitating abortion on demand in the House and Senate health care reform bills,” he warned.

Rep. Smith then recalled Obama's words to Congress on Sept. 9, 2009, when he said, “under our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortion.”

“Oh if that were only true,” Smith lamented, adding that Americans would not pay for abortions if the Stupak/Pitts amendment was enacted.  The amendment would have prohibited taxpayer funds from being used for abortion, but it was defeated in a committee vote this past July.

Also in attendance at the news conference was Wendy Wright, the president of Concerned Women for America.  Previewing her comments to the media, Wright noted that with the current health care bill, the government will decide which procedures Americans can receive, “with cost as a major factor.”

“It also will fund abortion,” she insisted.  “Since abortion costs less than prenatal care, delivery and post-natal care, especially if the mother or child has special needs, it is not unlikely that bureaucrats will put on their green-eye shades and decide that abortion will be covered but expensive maternal and child care is not.”