As Jivin J indicated in his post today, FactCheck.org yesterday agreed with the National Right to Life Committee that PA’s federally funded high risk insurance pool would have covered all abortions except “those ‘sought solely because of the sex of the unborn child'” had not NRLC sounded the alarm.
NRLC and other pro-life groups maintain this loophole is one of many yet to be discovered in the new 2k page healthcare law, despite Obama and pro-life Democrats’ assurances that the combination of the Nelson Amendment and Obama’s executive order ban federally funded abortions from Obamacare unless for rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother.
On July 17 Charles Krauthammer, a pro-abort I might add, said on Fox the PA controversy was evidence “Stupak was taken. He couldn’t stand the heat on this….”

But on July 18 Democrats for Life of America issued a fundraising appeal, making harsh accusations against NRLC in the process. Click to enlarge…


DFL fundraising appeal july 18.png
I asked DFL president Kristen Day about this. Kristen knows I agree with NRLC and Krauthammer that Stupak et al were indeed taken, that Obama’s EO is worthless. But she appreciates that I try to report fairly. This was her view:

My problem with NRLC is it continually bashes the pro-life Democrats and says they’re wrong.
The pro-life Democrats who voted for healthcare supported it all along, and the pro-life Democrats who voted against healthcare opposed it all along. That doesn’t mean one is more pro-life than the other in my eyes.
Most pro-lifers don’t work with these people day in and day out. These people really went to bat to get the EO.
The administration probably wouldn’t have called for these strong pro-life high risk pool rules had it not made this commitment to pro-life Democrats.
I think we need to give credit to them rather than continually criticizing them. Regarding your opinion of healthcare reform, the fact is high risk pools will not fund abortions.

Yet on July 20 Kristen issued this email (click to enlarge):
kristen july 20 email.png
See NARAL’s appeal here.
I asked Kristen about the apparent discrepancy in emails. She responded:

I think what NRLC is doing is partisan, but I probably wouldn’t have caught it [the PA high risk pool loophole]. I appreciate that NRLC brought it to my attention so I could get on the phone to the administration.

I asked Kristen what she saw in the NARAL email she wanted others to see, because IMO it made NRLC’s case. She said:

Because there’s a lot of misinformation out there – people have been saying all along Planned Parenthood and NARAL loved the healthcare bill and saw the Nelson Amendment as a sham – I thought people should see NARAL’s own words, their anger, not simply trust what the administration is putting out there.

Kristen and I are seeing things pretty much oppositely on this one. But Kristen closed:

Long ago pro-life groups decided to respect our different missions – tactics. Ours is to create to a strong pro-life voice within the Democrat Party,
For people to say pro-life Democrats are dead couldn’t be farther from the truth. They believe the EO will stick, and they believe there is no federal funding for abortion. They believe it did not compromise their pro-life views. I know there was a lot of anger over the healthcare bill, but we can’t mix the 2.
We just had almost all pro-life Democrats sign on the letter Rep. Gene Taylor wrote to stop the amendment for military funding of abortion. Some did that who wouldn’t have in the past. Because there is more of a pro-life voice within the party they feel it’s okay, whereas before they wouldn’t have stood up.
The problem is not the House, the problem is the Senate. We have a pro-life majority in the House right now b/c these pro-life Democrats are willing to stand up to Pelosi and anti-life leadership.
Time will tell if abortion language is in the healthcare bill. But if we get rid of pro-life Democrats in the House, there will be no stopgap.

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