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October 13, 2011

Nancy Pelosi Unglued: Republicans want women to die on the floor (Updated)

During a press conference today, Nancy Pelosi said that Republicans who voted for a pro-life bill were voting to let women die on the floor.

"Under this bill, when the Republicans vote for this bill today," ... "They will be voting to say that women can die on the floor and health care providers don't have to intervene if this bill is passed. It's just appalling."

The bill Pelosi is referring to, called H.R. 358, Protect Life Act, would ban the federal funding for abortions and bar women from using tax subsidies from the health care law to buy insurance that cover abortion -- except in cases of rape, incest or the health of the mother. It would also ensure that health-care providers are protected if they believe that performing abortion procedures clashes with their personal beliefs.

Pelosi and her fellow leftists in Congress are against the bill because it makes it clear that no funds authorized or appropriated by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare - which despite what Obama and his fellow Dems have claimed ... contains no limits on taxpayer funding of abortions), including tax credits and cost-sharing reductions, may be used to pay for abortion or abortion coverage. As Michael J. New points out, Obamacare created a number of funding streams which may result in taxpayer subsidized abortions that leftists want to keep:

... For instance, funds appropriated through Obamacare may subsidize health insurance plans purchased through state level exchanges which cover abortion. Additionally, Obamacare might subsidize abortion through funds appropriated for either community health centers or high-risk pools. The Protect Life Act insures that none of these funding streams would directly pay for abortions.

During the health-care debate, the issue of abortion funding put President Obama in a very difficult position politically. Most Americans oppose taxpayer funding of abortion and the pro-life movement wisely raised the salience of this issue. However, President Obama realized his pro-choice allies would never support an explicit ban on federal funds to insurance plans which included abortion. As such, his solution was to sign an executive order that would purportedly ban federal funds from going to insurance policies that would fund abortion. Obamacare supporters hoped that this would purchase some political cover for pro-life Democrats and convince some Americans that Obamacare did not actually fund abortion.

Of course, nearly all analysts, both pro-life and pro-choice agree that the executive order is close to meaningless. ...

Update: 11 Dems vote 'to say women can die on the floor':

... As David Freddoso wrote earlier, Democrats believe that, "If you fail to show sufficient enthusiasm for paying to kill someone else's baby, it is a sign that you're heartless."

This afternoon, however, eleven of her Democratic colleagues joined Republicans to pass the bill in the House.

Posted by Hyscience at October 13, 2011 1:22 PM

• Nancy Pelosi Unglued: Republicans want women to die on the floor (Updated) - Oct 13, 2011