VSHL
BLAST
September/October
2009
Virginia Society for Human Life
is the oldest pro-life organization in the nation with chapters throughout the
Commonwealth.
Introducing the
Virginia Society for Human Life (VSHL) Blast for Chapter Leaders and Membership—this is an ALERT on
current issues affecting the Right to Life.
ALERT: For Immediate Release:
For further information:
September 10,
2009
Olivia Gans
Margaret H. Disney
804.560.8745
National
Right to Life and Virginia Society for Human Life
note misleading remarks by President Obama
to the Joint Session of
Congress
National Right to Life Committee and its
Virginia affiliate, Virginia Society for Human Life, today call out President
Obama for misleading remarks he made in his joint session address last
night.
In his address to a joint session of
Congress last night, President Obama said, "One more misunderstanding
I want to clear up -- under our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund
abortions."
Douglas Johnson, legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee,
commented: "Barack Obama needs to learn that the mere repetition of a
verbal formula does not change reality. The reality is that the
Obama-backed House bill would explicitly authorize the federal government
insurance plan to pay for elective abortions and would explicitly authorize
subsidies for private abortion insurance -- and all with federal dollars, which
are the only kind of dollars that the federal government can spend."
The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) last week released definitive
memoranda that demonstrate that (1) the "Hyde Amendment" would not
apply to the new programs that would be created by the Obama-backed health
bill, H.R. 3200, and (2) that all of the funds that would be spent on elective
abortions under the bill, and all of the funds that would be spent to subsidize
private insurance plans that cover abortion, would be "federal funds"
in both the legal sense and in the sense in which those terms are used
throughout the government.
"The claim that a federal agency
would be spending private funds on abortion, not federal funds, is absurd on
its face, a political hoax," Johnson said.
Oivia Gans, President of VSHL, said
that Virginians have a special duty to require commitments from their members
of Congress and the Senate that they will work to specifically exclude abortion
coverage under any health care reform bills.
“Virginians do not
believe that abortion is health care.
They don’t want their taxes paying for the deaths of innocent unborn
children,” Gans continued.
ACTION:
1. Please
call your Congressman in the House of Representatives and ask him to vote
against any health care bill that does not explicitly exclude abortion.
2. Ask
him to vote against any Rule of the House that would not allow an amendment to be made for the purpose of
explicitly prohibiting abortion coverage under the bill.
3.
Call Virginia’s two Senators, Mark
Warner and Jim Webb, and ask them to vote against any health care reform bill
that that does not explicitly exclude abortion.
Call
the offices of your two U.S. senators and your representative through the
Senate switchboard, 202-224-3121, and the House switchboard, 202.225-3121. Give your zip code and you will be connected
to the correct office.
Key Talking Points on Health Care Rationing
NATIONAL RIGHT TO LIFE COMMITTEE (NRLC) - AUGUST 2009
Medicare and Health
Care Rationing
A
substantial part of health care subsidies, under current proposals, would be
paid for by “robbing Peter to pay Paul” -- reducing Medicare funding for
older people in order to cover the uninsured.
Over-Promising and Under-Funding Means Rationing
The
proposals under serious consideration fail to ensure a sustainable method of
financing the subsidies. Over-promising while under-funding health insurance
for the uninsured will almost surely lead to rationing.
Comparative Effectiveness
and Rationing
There
is no protective language in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and
Pension Committee (HELP) bill (unnumbered) or House bill (HR 3200) to guarantee
that the government cannot use “comparative effectiveness” research using
“quality-adjusted life years” or other measures to compel or encourage
denial of lifesaving medical treatment, food, or fluids based on the patient’s
age disability or so-called “quality of life.”
Pressuring Patients to forgo Treatment:
A Means of Rationing
Efforts
to push patients and older people to prepare advance directives may, in
practice, not center on respecting an individual’s wishes, but rather on
persuading or pressuring them to agree to less treatment as a means of
saving money.
for more information:
visit www.nrlc.org
Take Action and Make Your Voice Heard!
Visit the NRLC Legislative Action Center at
www.nrlactioncenter.com
VSHL’S
New PAC Website: (TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2009 IS ELECTION DAY IN
VIRGINIA. Virginians will be electing a
Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and all 100 Delegates and Senators are also up
for election/re-election)
VSHLPAC has launched www.deedsisforabortion.com, a new website dedicated to getting out the truth about
just how pro-abortion Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate Creigh Deeds actually
is.
Pro-life Virginians have a clear decision to make in the
voting booth this year between Pro-life Bob McDonnell and Pro-abortion Creigh
Deeds.
Visit www.deedsisforabortion.com and share with your pro-life family and friends as well!
Check out the new site as well as the main home page of VSHLPAC,
www.vshlpac.org for more info
and continued updates on races throughout Virginia.
How to contact us: VSHL 6767 Forest
Hill Ave, Suite 270, Richmond, VA 23225; Phone:
804-560-8745; www.vshl.org;
e-mail: vshl67@comcast.net
VSHL
Blast: knowinsky@aol.com
