Your activism helped deliver the victory of this amendment by a vote of 240-194. 64 Democrats supported the Stupak-Pitts amendment, and Speaker Pelosi and other pro-abortion leaders in the US House realized that the larger health care reform bill would not pass unless a vote on the Stupak provision was allowed. The vote confirms that the party of death is still deeply divided over abortion, and the life issue will further polarize when the rationing talks resume.
Over-arching federal mandates will never adequately empower physicians and health care professionals to deliver the compassionate care or offer the creative solutions necessary in providing day-to-day medical treatment. What will a doctor do if a patient's current health issue or necessary treatment is not addressed in the rules enacted by the feds? The current bills foster the denial of treatment in exactly these instances not only by cutting reimbursements to physicians, but also by imposing rules for care that will be impossible to follow when treating patients.
While the rhetoric about death panels in the health care reform efforts may sound alarming, rules about rationing care and deciding who receives what type of care and for what ailments are clearly included in all proposed versions. Physicians and health care providers will be penalized if they provide too many services or prescribe too many medications for their Medicare and Medicaid patients. The right to life of the indigent, the disabled, and the elderly is in serious jeopardy, not to mention that the rest of us will also be subject to government controls and regulations for our very private health care decisions.
The utilitarian guidelines about how to determine whose lives are most valuable and therefore merit top medical care and treatment have been outlined in the proposals. Those who are younger and can contribute more to society in the coming years will receive priority care whereas those who are elderly and/or disabled will not be valued as an efficient investment of medical resources (i.e., they are useless eaters). [URL=”http://www.buzzcraft.com/rtl/OBAMA_EMANUEL_LANCET.pdf”]Click here to read suggested criteria for medical treatment decisions[/URL] based on “comparative effectiveness” written by Dr. Zeke Emanuel, brother of Rahm Emanuel; both Emaneuls are close paid advisors of Obama.
While Texas Right to Life applauds Congressmen Stupak, Pitts, and our own Texas Pro-Lifers in Congress for adopting the Stupak-Pitts amendment, the thrill of victory for Life was brief. The extremists immediately vowed to remove the Stupak-Pitts amendment, and the rationing and government rules on health care still threaten all Texans and all Americans. No governmental bureaucratic formula will ever be comprehensive enough to respect, encompass, and promulgate the sanctity of innocent human life from fertilization until natural death.
The Stupak-Pitts Amendment accomplished two goals: the prohibition of federal funds directly paying for abortion and the prevention of private plans from offering abortion-coverage if such plans enroll people who receive government subsidies. All the Texas Pro-Life congressional representatives voted for the amendment, including Pro-Life Democrat Solomon Ortiz from South Texas.
Just moments after the Affordable Health Care for America bill passed in the House, Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA), chair of the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee, turned his back on his colleagues, publicly guaranteeing removal of the Stupak-Pitts amendment from the final bill in conference committee. US Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), the chief deputy whip, is already scheming to cut the Stupak amendment. Waxman, Wasserman, and other pro-abortion leaders want unlimited funding of unrestricted abortion on demand and will stop at nothing to expand government backing of this barbaric practice. Ironically, they seek unlimited funding to kill the unborn while simultaneously seeking to reduce funding of vital medical services to the elderly and disabled. Texas Right to Life is monitoring every provision in every version of the bill to ensure that the unborn and vulnerable are not further endangered.
The Affordable Health Care for America bill will next be considered in the US Senate. Pro-Life senators will seek similar abortion-funding restrictions in their version. In August, Texas Right to Life personally met with Pro-Life Senator John Cornyn to brief him on the countless assaults on life throughout the proposed reform. Senator Cornyn has always championed the Pro-Life cause, and he was already prepared to so again. Senator Cornyn is aware not only of the threats to the unborn, but he shares our fears about the rationing provisions and the death panels.
Your support and prayers enable Texas Right to Life to stay on the front lines of this health care battle.
Texas Right to Life. Defending your right to life and fighting to keep your money out of the abortion industry.
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