White House Officials to Meet With Pro-Life Group on Health Care and Abortion
A Major Pro-Life group is heading into the West Wing next week to discuss abortion and health care.
Two top White House Officials will meet with the pro-life group "Americans United for Life Action" next Thursday afternoon. Domestic Policy Council Director Melody Barnes and White House Director for Public Liaison Tina Tchen will meet with Dr. Charmaine Yoest, President and CEO of Americans United for Life Action.
This all began when AUL Action sent a letter to the President a couple months ago. Read the letter here. An excerpt is below:
Both H.R. 3200 and the Senate HELP Committee “Affordable Health Choices Act” would delegate to bureaucratic committees the role of determining the minimum benefits that any private or public healthcare plan must offer. Courts have broadly interpreted the “mandatory categories of care” within Medicaid – such as "family planning," "outpatient services," "inpatient services," and "physician services” -- to include abortion. Therefore, there is little doubt that courts will also include abortion within such categories in any healthcare reform bill unless abortion is expressly excluded.
About a month after receiving that letter, Tina Tchen from The White House responded and the meeting is now set. AUL Action is going to bring up the status of conscience protection, denial of care of the elderly and abortion in the health care bills. They will also be delivering their "Keep Abortion Out of Health Care Petition" at that meeting. More on the petition here.
A couple things to say here. First of all, it is a political reality that if the abortion language is not changed in the House bill, 40 Democrats in the Senate stand ready to block the bill. That's a problem. A Big one that can't be blown off.
Also, how about a tad bit of credit to The White House here? I mean, look they could have easily blown off that letter and not given AUL Action the time of day but they didn't. It's one thing to say you want to be inclusive. It's another thing to show it. Tina Tchen and Melody Barnes stepped up to the plate. Pro-lifers hope it will make a difference.
