ABC News: President’s top advisers on contraception mandate included Planned Parenthood CEO
Jake Tapper of ABC News wrote a remarkable story last week revealing the players in the Obama administration’s internal debate on the contraception mandate.
According to Tapper, President Obama’s top advisers on the issue included Vice President Joe Biden, former White House Chief-of-Staff Bill Daley, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, former Domestic Policy Council Director Melody Barnes, White House Senior Advisers Valerie Jarrett and Pete Rouse, former White House Communications Director Anita Dunn, two U.S. Senators – and Planned Parenthood Federation of America CEO Cecile Richards:
The debate within the White House on this issue was, sources say, heated….
The policy was wrong, the two Catholic men, Biden and Daley [and also Panetta], argued, saying that the Obama administration couldn’t force religious charities to pay for something they think is a sin….
But Biden and Daley faced a strong group making the case for the rule within the administration….
The two sides couldn’t even agree about what they were debating. In the fall, Richards brought in polling indicating that the American people overwhelmingly supported the birth control benefit in health insurance. She also highlighted statistics showing the overwhelming use of birth control.
The Vice President and others argued that this wouldn’t be seen as an issue of contraception – it would be seen as an issue of religious liberty. They questioned the polling of the rule advocates, arguing that it didn’t explain the issue in full, it ignored the question of what religious groups should have to pay for….
The president ultimately sided with the rule’s advocates…..
Surprising to me was Richards’ unquestioned prominence at the White House. Why did the mainstream media not question an obvious benefactor of the contraceptive mandate being in on the conversation? Richards is truly in the inner circle. Pro-lifers knew Richards had influence, but to see in writing just exactly how much weight she carries is informative.
More from Bloomberg on the internal struggle, which does not specifically list Richards but does mention Planned Parenthood later in the piece:
Obama ended months of internal White House debate by siding with a group of mostly female advisers who urged him not to limit a health-care law mandate to provide contraceptives, even at the risk of alienating Catholic voters in November, people familiar with the discussions said….
Sebelius, a Catholic and a two-term governor of Kansas, was joined by several female Obama advisers in urging against a broad exemption for religious organizations.
Note that liberal feminists and the abortion lobby carried more sway with Obama than his higher ranking male advisers. Recall Barnes is a former Planned Parenthood Action Fund and EMILY’s List board member and also a former lobbyist for the Center for Reproductive Rights. We all know how tied into the abortion industry Sebelius is. Obama has surrounded himself with radical pro-abortion feminists.
More on Richards’ importance, from an Associated Press piece about Obama’s “accommodation”:
Before announcing the decision, Obama called [Sister Carol] Keehan [CEO of the Catholic Health Association], Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards and Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan, head of the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops.
Here is an interesting aside. Seeking to explain why Obama’s original mandate didn’t fly, the Chicago Sun-Times says it was partially because Planned Parenthood and feminists were distracted…
Another part of the answer of why Obama backed down is that the women’s groups, the dependable White House allies, did not all have their acts entirely together to react quickly.
That’s in part because last week, when the trouble heated up, the groups were running what was a successful campaign to force the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation to back down and reverse its decision to ban funding for Planned Parenthood breast-cancer screenings.
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
I think I’m mostly surprised to see Biden standing up for principles…
oh boy. So now Planned Parenthood’s CEO, whose company stands to profit from this mandate and offshoots from this, has the president seeking her input? Yikes. I hope there is a RICO suit somewhere. Insider trading? Manipulation? This is so much a sacrament to this administration, it’s unfathomable.
I hope the reporting keeps digging, and keeps looking at all the angles. It’s about money, power and keeping the Church from reminding people what is good and true. So sad – and ultimately unbelievable. We must pray and mobilize. Trust in God – he delivered the Jews from their captivity and hopefully he will deliver us from the scales on our eyes and save our nation.
Another spin by the leftist Obama administration is the sping that states this is about “access” to contraceptives. It isn’t. It is about who pays, and more specifically it is about forcing people/employers to pay, violating the religious liberty of employers.
I sincerely hope that the Catholic bishops now see that Obama is incapable of upholding the Constitution, or keeping his word to them (but hey, if he can’t keep his Oath of Office, who are the bishops?)
Obama and his health care plan can only be defeated. If this is how cravenly he acts with his reelection on the line, how craven will he be in the ensuing four years if he’s re-elcted and has nothing left to lose? That is the question for November.
Agreed with Elisabeth. I was dumbfounded to learn that Biden was standing up for right here. That stood out to me more than the Cecile Richards story. And to say that it wouldn’t be a contraception issue but a religious liberties one? Wow. Just Wow. Maybe he’s not the 2X4 I thought he was. And wouldn’t it be a wonder to have a democrat vice-president standing up for religious liberty against the president and his abortion-loving minions?
In the article it says the following:
“For these advocates (Boxer, et al), this issue was logical and based on science: birth control saves women’s lives, reduces the number of unwanted pregnancies, and is a fundamental issue of a woman controlling her own health care.”
Can someone please explain to me what the left means when they say that BC saves lives? I assume they are referring to the Mother and not the aborted fetus, or the contracepted life. Even so, how exactly does bc save the lives of women/mothers? Is this just another lie/spin? Why did this reporter re-broadcast it?
I think Biden’s concern for religious liberty was politically motivated and not motivated by personal religious principles.
In reading this article, it seems that this whole thing was done in order to make a play for the women’s vote in November.
It all came down to what it would be SEEN as.
Never mind what a policy actually IS. If it IS an assault on first amendment rights, that’s OK as long as it’ll fly politically because it’ll be SEEN as something else. As long as public attitudes are pro-contraception, those attitudes may be leveraged to abuse religious freedom at the administration’s discretion.
These are real people, with real power, deliberating over what they can get away with, never mind that pesky Constitution.
So much for the rule of law, which begins not with the people’s respect of statute but with a government constrained by a constitution.
This is basic stuff: Lex Rex. Apparently not to Obama.
Overheard on Pennsylvania Avenue:
“Freedom of Abortion? Cece, my love, I can surely top that…”
“Oh, darling, I can’t wait to give you more money for your campaign!”
“Yes, yes! Talk money to me, baby, talk money to me…”
That makes as much sense as having the CEO of Budweiser give advice on whether or not to lower the drinking age to 18.
I was surprised too by Biden. Let’s hope that he will not use this as political fodder, but to stand up for his Church and God. We must hope for the best, but react to the worst. We need to get the information regarding bc out NOW. Too many people don’t know and don’t read the fine print. Too many people really don’t care about religion or God, but if things get really nasty, I’m hoping that people will stand up and say “I’m not going to take this any more!”
Oh Grandpa Joe…even a blind squirrel gets a nut from time to time.
Tyler, they base that ‘saves lives’ on one of the pro-aborts favorite biological fact, rarely, but sometimes, women *DIE* giving birth. Never mind women also die from abortions, abortion complications, and hormonal contraceptives, or that pregnancy and birth (and breast feeding) reduce life-long cancer risks, or that *most* women will never be healthier than when they are pregnant. The sad reality is sometimes bringing life into this world also ends life, but abortion advocates love to make it seem like women are dropping like flies left and right just cuz they peed on a stick and got a second line or a plus.
Thanks Jespren. Unfortunately, your explanation of the anti-lifers’ rationale for saying “bc saves lives” aroused an awful feeling in the pit of my stomach. I can live with it, but I just wonder how those spin-masters sleep at night?
Too funny xalisae!!
After reading the article, it seems that Obama may be considering firing Sebelius for insitituting the rule to early and without his oversight.
Does anyone else think this is a possibility, that Obama might be considering this?
Jill-Has the question ever been asked of the OBama’s- Have they experienced abortion? This fight is personal and many times as you know, when it is personal, there is a personal reason.
testing testing.
xalisae, here is one of the more terrifying comments. In fact, in light of the mandate issue it is ominous.
“The only way the courts won’t fail us is that if we force them to support us. And that is what Planned Parenthood does. It does so all the time, everyday,even while we are hear at this fabolous luncheon…And you know that..uhmm.. this is the women who would lead the way if she can.”
What did she mean by force? How exctly does PP force the courts? Pushing Obama around, perhaps?
I like getting my email updates from PP and NARAL so I can get called to action! And act in the diametrically-opposed manner to call voicing my support of whoever they’re urging to call and harass. XD
I like what George WIll said this weekend:
Catholics got exactly what they deserved.