They Lie! Abortion Funding Still in Democrat Plans

Recall a wave of manufactured outrage when Republican Congressman Joe Wilson reminded Barack Obama he was lying through his teeth about ObamaCare not funding abortion. Democrats and their handmaidens in the media all reacted with horror at the accusation and moved on to more important issues, like destorying Rush Limbaugh and declaring war on Fox News.

But the dirty little secret is they still plan to fund abortions in defiance of the Hyde amendment and this is now causing headaches within the Democratic Party.

So if ObamaCare doesn't fund abortion, why are Democrats fighting over it?

House Democrats are at an impasse over whether their remake of the nation's health care system would effectively allow federal funding of abortion.

At least two dozen anti-abortion Democrats believe it would, and while their opposition is unlikely to stall the legislation in the end, they are at odds with Democratic leaders just weeks ahead of anticipated floor action on the bill.

Lawmakers on the other side say they've compromised as far as they can to address the anti-abortion lawmakers' concerns by specifying that people receiving government subsidies to buy health insurance couldn't use that money for abortions.

Negotiations to find common ground have not yielded fruit.

"We have a difference of opinion at the moment we cannot bridge," said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, where the abortion language was approved. "We have done everything we can to ensure that there will be no federal funds for abortion services."

Waxman said he's still working on the issue with Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., the leader of the anti-abortion group. On Thursday the two had an earnest discussion on the House floor but afterward they said nothing had really changed.

Stupak, who's on the tall side, made a joking reference to Waxman's diminutive stature when asked whether their conversation had yielded a meeting of minds. "I'm a little taller. Our minds don't meet," Stupak said.

The main point of contention is the proposed new federal subsidies that would help lower-income people purchase health care coverage from private plans — and potentially from a new government-sponsored plan — within a new purchasing exchange.

Currently a law called the Hyde amendment bars federal funding for abortion — except in cases of rape and incest or if the mother's life would be endangered — and applies those restrictions to Medicaid, forcing states that cover abortion for low-income women to do so with their own money. Separate laws apply the restrictions to the federal employee health plan and military and other programs.

But the Democrats' health overhaul bill would create a new stream of federal funding not covered by the restrictions.

Stupak says language specifying that someone obtaining an abortion must use her own money, not federal money from the subsidies, doesn't go far enough because it's impossible to clearly segregate funds in that way.

"Once you get the affordability credits (subsidies) in there, that's public funding of abortion. We're not going there," Stupak said. "How do you get past the affordability credits is really the issue. And we can't."

Naturally, this isn't sitting well with Big Abortion.

NARAL recently sent a letter to supporters singling out Stupak for criticism and asking them to call their members of Congress to make sure he doesn't prevail.

On the other side, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said it can't support a health overhaul bill unless the anti-abortion language is strengthened.

Unless an eleventh-hour agreement is reached, Stupak intends to carry through on a threat he's been holding over House leaders for months: to block action on the larger health overhaul bill unless he's allowed to offer a stand-alone amendment during floor debate to include the Hyde amendment restrictions in the health overhaul bill.

Funny how we don't see any of the Obama-approved media talking about the civil war over abortion in the Democratic Party. Just imagine the derision from the left if this was happening in the GOP. We'd be hearing nonstop stories of how social conservatives were tearing the party apart.

Instead, that sound we hear from the Obamamedia is silence.

Update: Well, that's a face palm for me. Suffering apparent short-term memory loss, I forgot Wilson told Obama he lied about illegal aliens being covered under ObamaCare, not abortion. It's getting tough keeping track of all their lies.