Supreme Court Upholds Dangerous Healthcare Law
On June 28, 2012, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that Obama’s anti-Life healthcare law is constitutional as passed. The federal healthcare law marks the largest expansion of taxpayer-funding of abortion ever in our nation’s history.
Elizabeth Graham, Director of Texas Right to Life, described how devastating this ruling is:
Obama’s pet 1,000-page bill jeopardizes the lives of the unborn and the health of pregnant women. The elderly, the disabled, and the infirm are at risk of being denied medical care due to the rationing provisions of the law; the rationing decisions, known as ‘comparative effectiveness standards,’ are based on purely subjective quality of life standards.
Under the new healthcare law, health insurance plans offered by the states must offer abortion coverage unless state lawmakers pass a measure to take advantage of a small loophole in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). The loophole authorizes states to opt out of abortion coverage; women would then need to buy a separate, supplemental plan for abortion that is not covered by tax dollars. Texas Right to Life has already researched and prepared this legislation for the 2013 legislative session. The legislature will not take a step backward and implement the abortion mandate of the health care law on the taxpayers’ backs.
While preparations to protect the unborn and pregnant women from the implementation of PPACA are well underway, Texas Right to Life is studying and assessing how to address the dangerous rationing provisions. Shockingly, all people are at risk of being denied care, particularly the disabled and infirm, whose lives are considered unproductive by those who would make the care decisions.
Graham explains further:
The decision by the Supreme Court is very troubling. The assaults on human life at all stages will intensify like never before in our formerly free nation. Any expansion of government-run healthcare like this opens a perfect opportunity for abortion and euthanasia advocates to expand their own agendas. The responsibility of the Pro-Life majority in America to elect Pro-Life leaders is more important now than ever before.
Forced Abortion at Seven Months in China Causes Outrage
The Chinese government, concerned that its population will outnumber its resources, has long prohibited families from having more than one child. China has enforced this policy through coerced, forced abortion, and infanticide since 1979.
Feng Jianmei, a young mother of one and seven months pregnant, was kidnapped off the street and forced to consent to an abortion. The media reported that local officials in northwestern Shaanxi Province held Ms. Feng for three days, blindfolded, and forced her to consent to the abortion. Then, it took five men to hold her down and administer the abortion drug. She was then in labor for 48 hours.
The reason that this case in particular has garnered so much attention (aside from the gruesome nature of the event, which is unfortunately all too common in China) is that the father took a picture of his distraught and exhausted wife laying in bed next to the aborted baby. This baby was fully formed. He then posted this picture on China’s equivalent of Twitter for all to see. The visual recognition of a brutal practice was absolutely devastating.
Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) held a hearing at the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Africa, global health, and human rights to discuss China’s brutal one-child policy. The hearing was entitled, “Continued Human Rights Attacks on Families in China.” Rep. Smith explained:
Today in China, rather than being given maternal care, pregnant women without birth permits are hunted down and forcibly aborted. They are mocked, belittled and humiliated. In recent days, the exploitation and forced abortion at seven months of Feng Jianmei has sparked global outrage—and deep concern for her welfare and that of the women of China.
If a Chinese woman becomes pregnant without a permit, she can be fined up to 10 times the average annual income of two parents. These “illegal” children will then be denied an education, health care, and marriage. The European Parliament has condemned this policy and a group of prominent Chinese scholars has issued a letter calling for the reconsideration of the one-child policy. We hope and pray that this frenzy of recent media attention will call more attention to the atrocious practice and eventually lead to a repeal of the policy.
The Pro-Life movement still has much work to ensure that all people throughout the world are welcomed into Life and respected. If you would like any additional information on the topics discussed above, please send me a note or log onto www.TexasRightToLife.com. If you ever have questions about any Pro-Life issues, please be sure to let me know.
Yours for Life,
James J. Graham
Executive Director