Life Advocacy Briefing

Back to the Senate

THE U.S. HOUSE WEDNESDAY VOTED AGAIN to repeal ObamaCare – both the Affordable Care Act and its companion Reconciliation Act. The vote was 244 to 185, and we publish the roll call in this Life Advocacy Briefing. We will, in future weeks, publish the three roll calls on procedural motions leading up to the final passage so that our readers can note Members who shifted their votes from motion to motion.

All Republican House Members voted for the repeal, joined by five Democrats. Some Democrats who had voted against ObamaCare when it passed voted against repeal last week, some held to their vote, and yet others, believed to be politically vulnerable this year, switched to vote for repeal.

One of the five Democrats who voted for repeal, Rep. Larry Kissell (D-NC), was quoted by Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins in his FRC/Action Update last Wednesday, saying he had heard “‘from hundreds and hundreds of people from my district about their opposition to the healthcare law. I voted against it originally,’” he noted, “‘and I will vote to repeal it.’” (Mr. Kissell did vote against ObamaCare at its passage, but he voted against the first repeal bill which passed the House in January of 2011.)

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is widely expected to refuse to permit Senate consideration of the repeal measure during this Congress. And the need to repeal the behemoth promises to be a major issue in Congressional and Senate elections during the next 16 weeks.

Turn Off the Money!

THE POWERFUL HOUSE REPUBLICAN STUDY COMMITTEE IS CIRCULATING a letter among House GOP Members asking the Majority Leadership to refuse to permit consideration of any legislation which would in any way fund ObamaCare.

We publish near the close of this Life Advocacy Briefing the text of the letter, as well as the list of 80 Members who had signed as of our deadline.

Calls to House Members are in order via the Capitol switchboard at 1-202/224-3121, asking them to work and vote against any funding for ObamaCare implementation and requesting they support rescinding the funding already enacted.

From his Own Mouth

PRES. OBAMA WILL HAVE PLENTY OF OCCASIONS this summer and fall to claim that his massive takeover of America’s medical care system is “the right thing to do” (his current mantra). But “fair” is also one of his favorite words, and he is applying it – outrageously – to his unfair, oppressive, unconstitutional trampling of religious liberty in the guise of the Obama/Sebelius “contraception” mandate, forcing employers to furnish coverage of sterilization and contraception (including abortifacient drugs and devices) under ObamaCare.

That is the word he used in an interview last Monday on New Orleans television, reported by Thaddeus Baklinski for LifeSiteNews.com.

The interviewer posed a question submitted by a viewer of the CBS-affiliated station, quoted in Mr. Baklinski’s report: “ ‘What can you say about a healthcare [law] that’ll mandate insurance companies to provide birth control, sterilization, etc., to employees of Catholic universities, hospitals and churches, since this goes against the Catholic religion?’”

Here is the response of the President of the United States, quoted by LifeSiteNews.com: “‘Yeah. Well, it’s absolutely true that religious liberty is critical. I mean, that’s what our country was founded on. That’s the reason why we exempted churches, we exempted religious institutions,’ the President said. ‘But we did say that big Catholic hospitals or universities who employ a lot of non-Catholics and who receive a lot of federal money, that for them to be in a position to say to a woman who works there you can’t get that from your insurance company even though the institution isn’t paying for it [sic], that that crosses the line where that woman, she suddenly is gonna have to bear the burden and the cost of that. And,’” concluded Mr. Obama, “‘that’s not fair.’” Really?

Who’s the Boss?

AMONG THE CRITICAL QUESTIONS TO BE ANSWERED BY VOTERS this November is the power of the supposedly sovereign states to exclude abortion businesses from Medicaid payments.

The controversy in Indiana continues, as the Obama Regime’s Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently sent the Hoosier State a letter seeking to force inclusion of Planned Parenthood and other abortion “providers” in their Medicaid provider roster “even though,” writes Charlie Butts for OneNewsNow.com, “some 800 other facilities in the state provide the same Medicaid services as Planned Parenthood, minus abortions.”

Indiana Right to Life’s Mike Fichter told the news outlet, “‘It’s not the final ruling. … But it’s  sending a very clear indication that the Obama Administration is wanting to force Indiana to provide Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood, even though a duly elected state legislature in 2011 said that they did not want money being spent in this way.’”

In another outrageous circumvention of state policy, the Obama Regime is replacing state funds with federal grants to Planned Parenthood. States like New Hampshire, Tennessee and Texas, after excluding the abortion mill operator from state funding, are seeing millions of dollars flowing directly from the federal treasury to Planned Parenthood in their states, thanks in part to the refusal of the US Senate – in particular Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) – to go along with the House in disqualifying Planned Parenthood from federal largesse.

“[Despite] the fact that Planned Parenthood nationwide has a questionable background of fiscal impropriety, complicity in alleged crimes ranging from sex trafficking to statutory rape and its primary role in aborting babies,” notes Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins in his July 12 Washington Update, “the Obama Administration [and Sen. Reid] still finds it deserving of taxpayer dollars.”

If the Obama Regime goes away next January, so, we ought to be able to presume, will such pressure on the states to abandon their own policies and simply genuflect to Washington as though the states are mere administrative arms for the federal leviathan. (Replacing Sen. Reid as Majority Leader would be a strong step forward as well.) And that kind of change will offer pro-life citizens hope that their increasingly successful efforts in their state capitals to secure sensible, Life-protective policies will bear desperately needed fruit.

Noteworthy

GIVEN THE SUPREME COURT’s STUNNING PRETEXT that ObamaCare’s “individual mandate” is actually a tax, would it not be appropriate also to redefine as an “abortion tax” the implementing regulation forcing purchasers of new or altered insurance policies to pay a premium surcharge to cover abortions? “Abortion tax” has a particularly distasteful ring to it, yet that is what the Obama/Sebelius Dept. of Health & Human Services is imposing on us. Pass the word.

Phony Rights Group

BEWARE AN OUTFIT CALLED ‘HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH.’ This George Soros-funded gang with the altruistic name is, among other things, a front for the abortion industry.

Rather than joining the international outcry against Red China’s dastardly “one-child policy,” Human Rights Watch (HRW) is seeking United Nations condemnation of Mexico, reports Matthew Cullinan Hoffman for LifeSiteNews.com, “for failing to remove ‘barriers’ to abortion.

“HRW complains,” writes Mr. Hoffman, “that the abortion rate in Mexico’s states is low because states do not have streamlined procedures for approving abortion in rape cases, while doctors are unwilling to do the procedure, according to the leftist news service CIMAC.

“Abortion, which is illegal in all of Mexico’s 31 states, is exempt from punishment in certain rare cases, including rape,” reports LifeSiteNews.com. “However, the deadly procedure is rarely carried out” even in such circumstances “due to widespread opposition to killing unborn children.”

Some 17 Mexican states, notes Mr. Hoffman, “have passed right-to-life amendments to their constitutions in recent years,” a situation that has HRW and its fellow travelers seething.

House Members’ Letter Seeking ObamaCare Defunding

Addressed to House Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor

We are outraged by the US Supreme Court’s decision to rewrite and largely uphold the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act (“ObamaCare”), as we know you are as well. And we know that our sentiments are in line with the vast majority of Americans who believe that health care should be controlled by patients and doctors, not by the government.

We appreciate your willingness to schedule a vote on the full repeal of ObamaCare. We should continue efforts to repeal the law in its entirety this year, next year, and until we are successful. However, in the meantime, there is more we can do in Congress.

Since much of the implementation of ObamaCare is a function of the discretionary appropriations process, and since most of the citizens we represent believe that ObamaCare should never go into effect, we urge you not to bring to the House floor in the 112th Congress any legislation that provides or allows funds to implement ObamaCare through the Internal Revenue Service, the Dept. of Health & Human Services or any other federal entity. We also urge you to take legislative steps necessary to immediately rescind all ObamaCare implementation funds.

In Federalist No. 58, James Madison wrote that the “power over the purse may, in fact, be regarded as the most complete and effectual weapon … for obtaining a redress of every grievance. …” We thank you for your consideration and look forward to working closely with you to address defunding one of the largest grievances in our time and to restore patient-centered health care in America.

Signers of ‘Defund ObamaCare’ G.O.P. Members’ Letter

Initiated by Rep. Jim Jordan (OH), chairman of the House Republican Study Committee, and Rep. Michele Bachmann (MN), chairman of the House Tea Party Caucus

Representatives Mo Brooks (AL); Jeff Flake, Trent Franks, Paul Gosar, Ben Quayle & David Schweikert (AZ); Tim Griffin (AR); Duncan Hunter & Tom McClintock (CA); Cory Gardner & Doug Lamborn (CO); Sandy Adams, Connie Mack, John Mica, Jeff Miller, Dennis Ross, Steve Southerland, Cliff Stearns & Allen West (FL); Phil Gingrey, Tom Graves, Tom Price & Lynn Westmoreland (GA); Raul Labrador (ID); Don Manzullo & Joe Walsh (IL); Larry Bucshon, Dan Burton, Todd Rokita & Marlin Stutzman (IN); Steve King (IA); Tim Huelskamp & Mike Pompeo (KS); Charles Boustany, John Fleming, Jeff Landry, Steve Scalise (LA);

Also Representatives Justin Amash, Bill Huizenga & Tim Walberg (MI); Steven Palazzo (MS); Todd Akin, Vicky Hartzler & Blaine Luetkemeyer (MO); Mark Amodei (NV); Scott Garrett (NJ); Steve Pearce (NM); Ann Marie Buerkle (NY); Howard Coble & Walter Jones (NC); Rick Berg (ND); Steve Austria, Steve Chabot, Robert Latta & Jean Schmidt (OH); Tim Murphy & Joseph Pitts (PA); Jeff Duncan, Mick Mulvaney, Tim Scott & Joe Wilson (SC); Diane Black, Marsha Blackburn, Stephen Fincher, Chuck Fleischmann & Phil Roe (TN); Francisco Canseco, Michael Conaway, Bill Flores, Louie Gohmert, Sam Johnson, Randy Neugebauer, Ron Paul & Ted Poe (TX); Rob Bishop (UT); David McKinley (WV), Reid Ribble & Jim Sensenbrenner (WI).

House Voting Record

HR-6079 – ObamaCare Repeal – Passed July 11, 2012 – 244 to 185 (Democrats in italics; new Member in ALL CAPS)

Voting “yes”/pro-life: Aderholt, Bachus, Brooks, Roby, Rogers (AL); Young (AK); Flake, Franks, Gosar, Quayle, Schweikert (AZ); Crawford, Griffin, Ross, Womack (AR); Bilbray, Bono-Mack, Calvert, Campbell, Denham, Dreier, Gallegly, Herger, Hunter, Issa, Lewis, Lungren, McCarthy, McClintock, McKeon, Gary Miller, Nunes, Rohrabacher, Royce (CA); Coffman, Gardner, Lamborn, Tipton (CO); Adams, Bilirakis, Buchanan, Crenshaw, Diaz-Balart, Mack, Mica, Miller, Nugent, Posey, Rivera, Rooney, Ros-Lehtinen, Ross, Southerland, Stearns, Webster, West, Young (FL); Broun, Gingrey, Graves, Kingston, Price, Austin Scott, Westmoreland, Woodall (GA); Labrador, Simpson (ID); Biggert, Dold, Hultgren, Johnson, Kinzinger, Manzullo, Roskam, Schilling, Schock, Shimkus, Walsh (IL); Bucshon, Burton, Pence, Rokita, Stutzman, Young (IN); King, Latham (IA); Huelskamp, Jenkins, Lankford, Pompeo, Yoder (KS); Davis, Guthrie, Rogers, Whitfield (KY); Alexander, Boustany, Cassidy, Fleming, Landry, Scalise (LA); Bartlett, Harris (MD); Amash, Benishek, Camp, Huizenga, Miller, Rogers, Upton, Walberg (MI); Bachmann, Cravaack, Kline, Paulsen (MN); Harper, Nunnelee, Palazzo (MS); Akin, Emerson, Graves, Hartzler, Long, Luetkemeyer (MO); Rehberg (MT); Fortenberry, Smith, Terry (NE); Amodei, Heck (NV); Bass, Guinta (NH); Frelinghuysen, Garrett, Lance, LoBiondo, Runyan, Smith (NJ); Pearce (NM); Buerkle, Gibson, Grimm, Hanna, Hayworth, King, Reed, Turner (NY); Coble, Ellmers, Foxx, Jones, Kissell, McHenry, McIntyre, Myrick (NC); Berg (ND); Austria, Chabot, Gibbs, Johnson, Jordan, LaTourette, Latta, Renacci, Schmidt, Stivers, Tiberi, Turner (OH); Boren, Cole, Lucas, Sullivan (OK); Walden (OR); Barletta, Dent, Fitzpatrick, Gerlach, Kelly, Marino, Meehan, Murphy, Pitts, Platts, Shuster, Thompson (PA); Duncan, Gowdy, Mulvaney, Scott, Wilson (SC); Noem (SD); Black, Blackburn, DesJarlais, Duncan, Fincher, Fleischmann, Roe (TN); Barton, Brady, Burgess, Canseco, Carter, Conaway, Culberson, Farenthold, Flores, Gohmert, Granger, Hall, Hensarling, Sam Johnson, Marchant, McCaul, Neugebauer, Olson, Paul, Poe, Sessions, Smith, Thornberry (TX); Bishop, Chaffetz, Matheson (UT); Cantor, Forbes, Goodlatte, Griffith, Hurt, Rigell, Wittman, Wolf (VA); Hastings, Herrera-Beutler, McMorris-Rodgers, Reichert (WA); Capito, McKinley (WV); Duffy, Petri, Ribble, Ryan, Sensenbrenner (WI); Lummis (WY).

Voting “no”/anti-Life: Sewell (AL); BARBER, Grijalva, Pastor (AZ); Baca, Bass, Becerra, Berman, Capps, Cardoza, Chu, Costa, Davis, Eshoo, Farr, Filner, Garamendi, Hahn, Honda, Lee, Lofgren, Matsui, McNerney, George Miller, Napolitano, Pelosi, Richardson, Roybal-Allard, Linda Sanchez, Loretta Sanchez, Schiff, Sherman, Speier, Stark, Thompson, Waters, Waxman, Woolsey (CA); DeGette, Perlmutter, Polis (CO); Courtney, DeLauro, Himes, Larson, Murphy (CT); Carney (DE); Brown, Castor, Deutch, Hastings, Wasserman–Schultz, Wilson (FL); Barrow, Bishop, Johnson, Lewis, David Scott (GA); Hanabusa, Hirono (HI); Costello, Davis, Gutierrez, Lipinski, Quigley, Rush, Schakowsky (IL); Carson, Donnelly, Visclosky (IN); Boswell, Braley, Loebsack (IA); Yarmuth (KY); Richmond (LA); Michaud, Pingree (ME); Cummings, Edwards, Hoyer, Ruppersberger, Sarbanes, VanHollen (MD); Capuano, Frank, Keating, Lynch, Markey, McGovern, Neal, Olver, Tierney, Tsongas (MA); Clarke, Conyers, Dingell, Kildee, Levin, Peters (MI); Ellison, McCollum, Peterson, Walz (MN); Thompson (MS); Carnahan, Clay, Cleaver (MO); Berkley (NV); Andrews, Holt, Pallone, Pascrell, Rothman, Sires (NJ); Heinrich, Lujan (NM); Ackerman, Bishop, Clarke, Crowley, Engel, Higgins, Hinchey, Hochul, Israel, Lowey, Maloney, McCarthy, Meeks, Nadler, Owens, Rangel, Serrano, Slaughter, Tonko, Towns, Velazquez (NY); Butterfield, Miller, Price, Shuler, Watt (NC); Fudge, Kaptur, Kucinich, Ryan, Sutton (OH); Blumenauer, Bonamici, DeFazio, Schrader (OR); Altmire, Brady, Critz, Doyle, Fattah, Holden, Schwartz (PA); Cicilline, Langevin (RI); Clyburn (SC); Cohen, Cooper (TN); Cuellar, Doggett, Gonzalez, Al Green, Gene Green, Hinojosa, Jackson-Lee, E.B. Johnson, Reyes (TX); Welch (VT); Connolly, Moran, Scott (VA); Dicks, Larsen, McDermott, Smith (WA); Chandler, Rahall (WV); Baldwin, Kind, Moore (WI).

Not Voting: Bonner (AL); Jackson (IL); Boehner (OH).