Life Advocacy Briefing

Fr. Paul Marx, RIP

A LION OF THE PRO-LIFE MOVEMENT HAS PASSED to his eternal reward. The revered Fr. Paul Marx passed away March 20 at age 89. He founded Human Life International (HLI) in 1981 and Population Research Institute in 1989.

Said HLI president Fr. Thomas Euteneuer, quoted by LifeSiteNews.com, “‘Fr. Paul Marx … traveled three million miles to over 90 countries and was like the Johnny Appleseed of the pro-life movement, planting pro-life groups everywhere he went. Pope John Paul II called him the apostle of Life with good reason.’” We thank God for his life and work.

The Deed Is Done – & Compounded

WE HAVE LITTLE TO SAY – HAVING ALREADY SAID IT for so many months – about the passage of ObamaCare. We anticipate publishing a commentary for our Internet website www.LifeAdvocacy.com, particularly regarding the Stupak shuffle, and will note it in Life Advocacy Briefing when it has been posted. For now, we are still – along with many others – thinking it through.

After House passage of the Senate version of ObamaCare late Sunday, March 21, the House took up and passed a “reconciliation” measure designed to throw bones to those House Members who were unhappy with having been lured into voting for a bill they supposedly did not actually support. (Only in Washington – or Jonestown!) That bill then crossed the Capitol for consideration in the Senate, and a plethora of amendments were offered by Senate Republicans, only one of which was adopted, a somewhat technical amendment dealing with student loans and grants. (Is there nothing in law about a single-subject rule?)

Among the amendments offered in the Senate was one by Sen. Tom Coburn MD to bar coverage of erectile dysfunction drugs for sex offenders, as well as excluding from ObamaCare coverage for induced abortion drugs such as RU-486. As with the other Republican attempts at fixing or ameliorating the atrocity already whisked over to the White House and signed by the President, Sen. Coburn’s fine amendment was tabled by a roll call vote. We publish that voting record at the close of this Life Advocacy Briefing, following two of the pertinent House roll calls on ObamaCare. Please note: Those voting “yes” to table the Coburn Amendment were effectively voting in favor of using federal tax dollars to underwrite sex tools for molesters and rapists and forcing federal taxpayers to pay for RU-486 and other abortion drugs.

Health Bill is Malpractice

March 17, 2010, “op-ed” commentary by US Sen. Tom Coburn MD, published by Yahoo! News and reprinted by National Review Online

Congress’s latest final push in its ideological crusade called “health reform” is shaping up to be an act of historic arrogance and deception.

For months, the American people have been telling Congress to scrap the current bills. A recent CNN poll found that 7 in 10 Americans want Congress to start over on health care, or quit working on the issue altogether. Yet, the majority in Congress continues to march on in the face of overwhelming public opposition.

The American people have good reason to be concerned. The bill that may become law in a few days is not a collection of so-called fixes or compromises but the exact bill the Senate passed on Christmas Eve that was filled with backroom deals such as the Cornhusker Kickback. The Senate bill also still contains half a trillion dollars in Medicare cuts, half a trillion dollars in tax increases, job-killing penalties for employers, provisions that will cause premiums to spike and radical provisions to fund abortion and ration health care.

House leaders are so ashamed of the Senate bill that they have concocted a procedural process to pass the Senate bill without having a direct vote. In short, they hope to pass one of the most important pieces of legislation in recent history, which will affect one-sixth of our economy, without the public knowing. Even House Democrats are criticizing this charade.  Rep. Jason Altmire (D-PA), a member of the Blue Dog and New Democrat coalitions, called this process “wrong.” Altmire and other wavering Democrats understand that once the House passes the Senate bill, the Senate will have little motivation to clean up the bill under the arcane and complex reconciliation process.

The fundamental problem with the current reform bill is that it fixes the wrong problem. In medicine, we call this treating symptoms rather than the disease.

The fundamental problem in health care is cost. Every family knows that cost reduces access. As a nation, we spend twice as much on health care as any other industrialized country, but we aren’t any healthier as a result. A study by Thomson-Reuters shows that one in three dollars in our more than $2 trillion healthcare system does nothing to help people get well or prevent them from getting sick. If Members of Congress focused their time and energy on allocating the healthcare dollars that are already in the system more efficiently – by reducing fraud and the costs associated with defensive medicine, for instance – we could lower cost and improve access overnight.

The bill before us, however, fails to do that. Instead, it builds on a broken and bankrupt system. The Senate bill will put 15 million Americans in the Medicaid program, which is bankrupting states and denying care to millions of Americans. Forty percent of doctors restrict access to Medicaid patients because reimbursement rates are so low. The rest of America will be funneled into the insurance industry the White House has been demonizing.

Supporters argue that the bill will save taxpayers $100 billion over 10 years, but this estimate is a sham. The numbers Congress gave to the Congressional Budget Office include 10 years of tax increases but only six years of benefits at the back end. This is unjust and deceptive Enron-style accounting. No homeowner would allow a bank to tell them they have to make mortgage payments for four years before they can move into their new home. Yet that is precisely what Congress is telling the American people.

The bill will also cause healthcare costs and premiums to increase, not decrease. According to CBO, premiums for families could rise 10-13% beyond current estimates. The President’s own actuary also estimated that healthcare costs will increase, not decrease, under the Senate bill.

Proponents are not only wrong about cost containment but patient choice as well. The fact is the Senate bill takes unprecedented steps to put government bureaucrats between patients and doctors. For instance, the Senate bill creates new comparative effectiveness research (CER) panels that have been used as rationing commissions in other countries such as the UK, where 15,000 cancer patients die prematurely every year according to the National Cancer Intelligence Network.

The Senate bill also depends on the recommendations of the US Preventive Services Task Force in no fewer than 14 places. This task force was responsible for advising women under 50 to not undergo annual mammograms. Proponents claim the task force recommendations do not carry the force of law, but the Senate bill itself contradicts that claim by declaring health insurance plans “shall provide coverage for” services approved by the task force.

I’ve treated patients in my own practice who would have had their lives cut short had a government panel been allowed to tell me which treatments I could and could not prescribe. These and other provisions have caused physicians to turn against this bill. For instance, a recent poll conducted by Sermo.com, an online community of more than 110,000 physicians, found that only 1 in 10 physicians said Congress should push the current bills through, while nearly two-thirds of physicians said Congress should start over and work on targeted, step-by-step solutions.

Health reform will only be possible when Congress agrees to listen to reason and the American people, and defeats a deeply misguided plan that will increase costs, limit patient choices and delay the real reform America needs.

Notes Yahoo! News: Tom Coburn is a US Senator from Oklahoma. He is also a practicing physician and author of the “Patients’ Choice Act” along with Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina and Representatives Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Devin Nunes of California.

House Voting Records

HRes 1203 – Rule for Consideration of Senate Amendments (House passage) of HR-3590, Reid/Obama Healthcare Takeover Plan – March 21, 2010 – Adopted 224 to 206 (Democrats in italics)

Voting “no” / pro-Life: Aderholt, Adler (NJ), Akin, Alexander, Arcuri, Austria, Bachmann, Bachus, Barrett (SC), Barrow, Bartlett, Barton (TX), Biggert, Bilbray, Bilirakis, Bishop (UT), Blackburn, Blunt, Boehner, Bonner, Bono-Mack, Boozman, Boren, Boucher, Boustany, Brady (TX), Bright, Broun (GA), Brown (SC), Brown-Waite, Buchanan, Burgess, Burton (IN), Buyer, Calvert, Camp, Campbell, Cantor, Cao, Capito, Carter, Cassidy, Castle, Chaffetz, Chandler, Childers, Coble, Coffman (CO), Cole, Conaway, Crenshaw, Culberson, Davis (AL), Davis (KY), Davis (TN), Deal (GA), Dent, L. Diaz-Balart, M. Diaz-Balart, Dreier, Duncan, Edwards (TX), Ehlers, Emerson, Fallin, Flake, Fleming, Forbes, Fortenberry, Foxx, Franks (AZ), Frelinghuysen, Gallegly, Garrett (NJ), Gerlach, Gingrey (GA), Gohmert, Goodlatte, Granger, Graves, Griffith, Guthrie, Hall (TX), Harper, Hastings (WA), Heller, Hensarling, Herger, Herseth-Sandlin, Hoekstra, Holden, Hunter, Inglis, Issa, Jenkins, Johnson (IL), Sam Johnson, Jones, Jordan (OH), King (IA), King (NY), Kingston, Kirk, Kline (MN), Kratovil, Lamborn, Lance, Latham, LaTourette, Latta, Lee (NY), Lewis (CA), Linder, Lipinski, LoBiondo, Lucas, Luetkemeyer, Lummis, Daniel Lungren, Lynch, Mack, Manzullo, Marchant, Marshall, Matheson, McCarthy (CA), McCaul, McClintock, McCotter, McHenry, McIntyre, McKeon, McMorris-Rodgers, Melancon, Mica, Miller (FL), Miller (MI), Gary Miller, Minnick, Mitchell, Moran (KS), Tim Murphy, Myrick, Neugebauer, Nunes, Nye, Olson, Paul, Paulsen, Pence, Petri, Pitts, Platts, Poe (TX), Posey, Price (GA), Putnam, Radanovich, Rehberg, Reichert, Roe (TN), Rogers (AL), Rogers (KY), Rogers (MI), Rohrabacher, Rooney, Ros-Lehtinen, Roskam, Ross, Royce, Ryan (WI), Scalise, Schmidt, Schock, Sensenbrenner, Sessions, Shadegg, Shimkus, Shuler, Shuster, Simpson, Skelton, Smith (NE), Smith (NJ), Smith (TX), Souder, Space, Stearns, Sullivan, Taylor, Terry, Thompson (PA), Thornberry, Tiahrt, Tiberi, Turner, Upton, Walden, Wamp, Westmoreland, Whitfield, Wilson (SC), Wittman, Wolf, Young (AK), Young (FL)

Voting “yes” / anti-Life: Ackerman, Altmire, Andrews, Baca, Baird, Baldwin, Bean, Becerra, Berkley, Berman, Berry, Bishop (GA), Bishop (NY), Blumenauer, Boccieri, Boswell, Boyd, Brady (PA), Braley (IA), Corrine Brown, Butterfield, Capps, Capuano, Cardoza, Carnahan, Carney, Carson (IN), Castor (FL), Chu, Clarke, Clay, Cleaver, Clyburn, Cohen, Connolly (VA), Conyers, Cooper, Costa, Costello, Courtney, Crowley, Cuellar, Cummings, Dahlkemper, Davis (CA), Davis (IL), DeFazio, DeGette, Delahunt, DeLauro, Dicks, Dingell, Doggett, Donnelly (IN), Doyle, Driehaus, Edwards (MD), Ellison, Ellsworth, Engel, Eshoo, Etheridge, Farr, Fattah, Filner, Foster, Frank (MA), Fudge, Garamendi, Giffords, Gonzalez, Gordon (TN), Grayson, Al Green, Gene Green, Grijalva, Gutierrez, Hall (NY), Halvorson, Hare, Harman, Hastings (FL), Heinrich, Higgins, Hill, Himes, Hinchey, Hinojosa, Hirono, Hodes, Holt, Honda, Hoyer, Inslee, Israel, Jackson (IL), Jackson-Lee (TX), Johnson (GA), E.B. Johnson, Kagen, Kanjorski, Kaptur, Kennedy, Kildee, Kilpatrick (MI), Kilroy, Kind, Kirkpatrick (AZ), Kissell, Klein (FL), Kosmas, Kucinich, Langevin, Larsen (WA), Larson (CT), Lee (CA), Levin, Lewis (GA), Loebsack, Zoe Lofgren, Lowey, Lujan, Maffei, Maloney, Markey (CO), Markey (MA), Matsui, McCarthy (NY), McCollum, McDermott, McGovern, McMahon, McNerney, Meek (FL), Meeks (NY), Michaud, Miller (NC), George Miller, Mollohan, Moore (KS), Moore (WI), Moran (VA), Murphy (CT), Murphy (NY), Patrick Murphy, Nadler (NY), Napolitano, Neal (MA), Oberstar, Obey, Olver, Ortiz, Owens, Pallone, Pascrell, Pastor (AZ), Payne, Perlmutter, Perriello, Peters, Peterson, Pingree (ME), Polis (CO), Pomeroy, Price (NC), Quigley, Rahall, Rangel, Reyes, Richardson, Rodriguez, Rothman (NJ), Roybal-Allard, Ruppersberger, Rush, Ryan (OH), Salazar, Linda Sanchez, Loretta Sanchez, Sarbanes, Schakowsky, Schauer, Schiff, Schrader, Schwartz, Scott (GA), Scott (VA), Serrano, Sestak, Shea-Porter, Sherman, Sires, Slaughter, Smith (WA), Snyder, Speier, Spratt, Stark, Stupak, Sutton, Tanner, Teague, Thompson (CA), Thompson (MS), Tierney, Titus, Tonko, Towns, Tsongas, VanHollen, Velazquez, Visclosky, Walz, Wasserman-Schultz, Waters, Watson, Watt, Waxman, Weiner, Welch, Wilson (OH), Woolsey, Wu, Yarmuth

Not voting: Pelosi

Motion to Concur in Senate Amendments to HR-3590 –House passage of Reid/Obama Healthcare Takeover Plan – March 21, 2010 – Adopted 219 to 212 (Democrats in italics)

Voting “no” / pro-Life: Aderholt, Adler (NJ), Akin, Alexander, Altmire, Arcuri, Austria, Bachmann, Bachus, Barrett (SC), Barrow, Bartlett, Barton (TX), Berry, Biggert, Bilbray, Bilirakis, Bishop (UT), Blackburn, Blunt, Boehner, Bonner, Bono-Mack, Boozman, Boren, Boucher, Boustany, Brady (TX), Bright, Broun (GA), Brown (SC), Brown-Waite, Buchanan, Burgess, Burton (IN), Buyer, Calvert, Camp, Campbell, Cantor, Cao, Capito, Carter, Cassidy, Castle, Chaffetz, Chandler, Childers, Coble, Coffman (CO), Cole, Conaway, Crenshaw, Culberson, Davis (AL), Davis (KY), Davis (TN), Deal (GA), Dent, L. Diaz-Balart, M. Diaz-Balart, Dreier, Duncan, Edwards (TX), Ehlers, Emerson, Fallin, Flake, Fleming, Forbes, Fortenberry, Foxx, Franks (AZ), Frelinghuysen, Gallegly, Garrett (NJ), Gerlach, Gingrey (GA), Gohmert, Goodlatte, Granger, Graves, Griffith, Guthrie, Hall (TX), Harper, Hastings (WA), Heller, Hensarling, Herger, Herseth-Sandlin, Hoekstra, Holden, Hunter, Inglis, Issa, Jenkins, Johnson (IL), Sam Johnson, Jones, Jordan (OH), King (IA), King (NY), Kingston, Kirk, Kissell, Kline (MN), Kratovil, Lamborn, Lance, Latham, LaTourette, Latta, Lee (NY), Lewis (CA), Linder, Lipinski, LoBiondo, Lucas, Luetkemeyer, Lummis, Daniel Lungren, Lynch, Mack, Manzullo, Marchant, Marshall, Matheson, McCarthy (CA), McCaul, McClintock, McCotter, McHenry, McIntyre, McKeon, McMahon, McMorris-Rodgers, Melancon, Mica, Miller (FL), Miller (MI), Gary Miller, Minnick, Moran (KS), Tim Murphy, Myrick, Neugebauer, Nunes, Nye, Olson, Paul, Paulsen, Pence, Peterson, Petri, Pitts, Platts, Poe (TX), Posey, Price (GA), Putnam, Radanovich, Rehberg, Reichert, Roe (TN), Rogers (AL), Rogers (KY), Rogers (MI), Rohrabacher, Rooney, Ros-Lehtinen, Roskam, Ross, Royce, Ryan (WI), Scalise, Schmidt, Schock, Sensenbrenner, Sessions, Shadegg, Shimkus, Shuler, Shuster, Simpson, Skelton, Smith (NE), Smith (NJ), Smith (TX), Souder, Space, Stearns, Sullivan, Tanner, Taylor,  Teague, Terry, Thompson (PA), Thornberry, Tiahrt, Tiberi, Turner, Upton, Walden, Wamp, Westmoreland, Whitfield, Wilson (SC), Wittman, Wolf, Young (AK), Young (FL)

Voting “yes” / anti-Life: Ackerman, Andrews, Baca, Baird, Baldwin, Bean, Becerra, Berkley, Berman, Bishop (GA), Bishop (NY), Blumenauer, Boccieri, Boswell, Boyd, Brady (PA), Braley (IA), Corrine Brown, Butterfield, Capps, Capuano, Cardoza, Carnahan, Carney, Carson (IN), Castor (FL), Chu, Clarke, Clay, Cleaver, Clyburn, Cohen, Connolly (VA), Conyers, Cooper, Costa, Costello, Courtney, Crowley, Cuellar, Cummings, Dahlkemper, Davis (CA), Davis (IL), DeFazio, DeGette, Delahunt, DeLauro, Dicks, Dingell, Doggett, Donnelly (IN), Doyle, Driehaus, Edwards (MD), Ellison, Ellsworth, Engel, Eshoo, Etheridge, Farr, Fattah, Filner, Foster, Frank (MA), Fudge, Garamendi, Giffords, Gonzalez, Gordon (TN), Grayson, Al Green, Gene Green, Grijalva, Gutierrez, Hall (NY), Halvorson, Hare, Harman, Hastings (FL), Heinrich, Higgins, Hill, Himes, Hinchey, Hinojosa, Hirono, Hodes, Holt, Honda, Hoyer, Inslee, Israel, Jackson (IL), Jackson-Lee (TX), Johnson (GA), E.B. Johnson, Kagen, Kanjorski, Kaptur, Kennedy, Kildee, Kilpatrick (MI), Kilroy, Kind, Kirkpatrick (AZ), Klein (FL), Kosmas, Kucinich, Langevin, Larsen (WA), Larson (CT), Lee (CA), Levin, Lewis (GA), Loebsack, Zoe Lofgren, Lowey, Lujan, Maffei, Maloney, Markey (CO), Markey (MA), Matsui, McCarthy (NY), McCollum, McDermott, McGovern, McNerney, Meek (FL), Meeks (NY), Michaud, Miller (NC), George Miller, Mitchell, Mollohan, Moore (KS), Moore (WI), Moran (VA), Murphy (CT), Murphy (NY), Patrick Murphy, Nadler (NY), Napolitano, Neal (MA), Oberstar, Obey, Olver, Ortiz, Owens, Pallone, Pascrell, Pastor (AZ), Payne, Pelosi, Perlmutter, Perriello, Peters, Pingree (ME), Polis (CO), Pomeroy, Price (NC), Quigley, Rahall, Rangel, Reyes, Richardson, Rodriguez, Rothman (NJ), Roybal-Allard, Ruppersberger, Rush, Ryan (OH), Salazar, Linda Sanchez, Loretta Sanchez, Sarbanes, Schakowsky, Schauer, Schiff, Schrader, Schwartz, Scott (GA), Scott (VA), Serrano, Sestak, Shea-Porter, Sherman, Sires, Slaughter, Smith (WA), Snyder, Speier, Spratt, Stark, Stupak, Sutton, Thompson (CA), Thompson (MS), Tierney, Titus, Tonko, Towns, Tsongas, VanHollen, Velazquez, Visclosky, Walz, Wasserman-Schultz, Waters, Watson, Watt, Waxman, Weiner, Welch, Wilson (OH), Woolsey, Wu, Yarmuth

Senate Voting Record

Motion to Table Coburn Amendment to HR-4872 – Health Care & Student Loan ‘Reconciliation’ Bill – barring coverage of erectile dysfunction drugs for sex offenders and for drugs intended to induce abortion (e.g. RU-486) – March 24, 2010 – Tabling Motion Adopted 57 to 42 (Democrats in italics; “Independents” marked “I”)

Voting “no” / pro-life: AL/Sessions & Shelby, AK/Murkowski, AZ/Kyl & McCain, FL/LeMieux, GA/Chambliss, ID/Crapo & Risch, IN/Bayh & Lugar, IA/Grassley, KS/Brownback & Roberts, KY/Bunning & McConnell, LA/Vitter, ME/Collins & Snowe, MA/Brown, MS/Cochran & Wicker, MO/Bond, NE/Johanns & Nelson, NV/Ensign, NH/Gregg, NC/Burr, OH/Voinovich, OK/Coburn & Inhofe, SC/DeMint & Graham, SD/Thune, TN/Alexander & Corker, TX/Cornyn & Hutchison, UT/Bennett & Hatch, WY/Barrasso & Enzi

Voting “yes” / pro-abortion: AK/Begich, AR/Lincoln & Pryor, CA/Boxer & Feinstein, CO/Bennet & Udall, CT/Dodd & Lieberman (I), DE/Carper & Kaufman, FL/Nelson, HI/Akaka & Inouye, IL/Burris & Durbin, IA/Harkin, LA/Landrieu, MD/Cardin & Mikulski, MA/Kerry, MI/Levin & Stabenow, MN/Franken & Klobuchar, MO/McCaskill, MT/Baucus & Tester, NV/Reid, NH/Shaheen, NJ/Lautenberg & Menendez,

NM/Bingaman & Udall, NY/Gillibrand & Schumer, NC/Hagan, ND/Conrad & Dorgan, OH/Brown, OR/Merkley & Wyden, PA/Casey & Specter, RI/Reed & Whitehouse, SD/Johnson, VT/Leahy & Sanders (I), VA/Warner & Webb, WA/Cantwell & Murray, WV/Byrd & Rockefeller, WI/Feingold & Kohl

Not voting: GA/Isakson

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