By Chuck Norris
Washington is up to its old political shell game again, but this time – to steal an often used word from the mouth of our president – in an unprecedented way.
While the mainstream media are focused on President Obama's two trips to Europe (last week to Oslo and this week to Copenhagen), the Democrats in Congress slipped major pro-abortion legislation under the radar.
First, last Monday the Senate tabled the amendment introduced by Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, that would ban federal funds from providing for abortion in its health-care reform bill.
Then on Thursday the House
After the Democrat-controlled Senate cleared a procedural vote on Saturday needed to end a Republican filibuster, on yet another near-secret Sunday afternoon session, the Senate passed the omnibus bill, and its provision that also overturns the 1988 Dornan Amendment, which prevented use of taxpayer dollars to fund abortions in Washington, D.C. Tragically, the bill also appropriates $648.5 million for international family planning funding (an increase of $103 million over 2009) and contains funding for Planned Parenthood and for the United Nations Population Fund, both of which have pro-abortion agendas.
According to Douglas Johnson of the National Right to Life Committee, what the congressional Democratic leaders did was to take "a single appropriations bill that's just supposed to cover a couple of departments and just stapl[ed] a bunch of other bills to it that were never even taken up by the Senate." Johnson further explained, "So, they ram[med] these through under a fast-track procedure where the Senate would never have even debated nor had a chance to vote on these measures."
In short, while President Obama was accepting the Nobel Peace Prize, the Democrats in Congress drove a sword through the womb of the unborn.
But when politicians like Sen. Barbara Boxer liken funding abortion for women to funding Viagra for men, can't we see that politicians have lost touch with reality and America is in deep, deep trouble? Even Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., added to the ludicrousness by asking, "What if we were to vote on a Viagra amendment and it had the same limits that would apply for abortion?" He concluded by saying that he wanted his daughters and granddaughters to have access to all "reproductive health care."
The big question and bottom line, as Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, asked, is: "Why should people of conscience be forced to participate in any aspect of abortion?"
Washington has certainly reached a new low by forcing American citizens who oppose abortion to pay for them via their taxes in this massively comprehensive way. Is it intentionally trying to spark the next Boston Tea Party? (Washington's wild spending and abandonment of the American people and our founder's vision is what prompted me to add a 64-page expansion to the new paperback version of my New York Times best-seller, "Black Belt Patriotism," being released in Jan. 2010 through Fidelis Books. See the new website.)
Congress' latest pro-abortion strategy is a radical divergence from – and sheer contradiction of – Obama's promise just given back on Sept. 9, "Under our [health care reform] plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions." Looks like Congress will assist him after all in fulfilling his campaign promise to Planned Parenthood to "turn the page" on the abortion debate.
Let there be no doubt about this: Obama is still hell-bent to fulfill his campaign promise to sign the Freedom of Choice Act, or FOCA, which is a sweeping bill that would abolish all pro-life regulations across the nation, from parental notification laws to bans on all federal funding of abortion.
If that pro-abortion page is going to turn, however, the Democrats in Congress know that they must modify the existing amendments that prohibit federal funding for the termination of life in the womb, and the Dornan Amendment is their place to start. Next will likely be the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits the same through Health and Human Services like Medicaid. (If Congress can overshadow Medicaid with its new pro-abortion, universal socialized medical plan, how long will it take before the Hyde Amendment is regarded as obsolete?)
Tragically, all of these pro-abortion actions are being taken by Washington despite a new nationwide survey revealing that four out of five U.S. adults (82 percent) would limit abortion's legality. One out of three (38 percent) would limit abortion to rape, incest or to save the mother's life. One out of three (33 percent) would also limit abortion to either the first three or first six months. Only nine percent said abortion should be legal for any reason at any time during pregnancy.
Mark my words, federal funding of abortion will become a reality unless America stands up now and assures the passage of the Stupak-Pitts Amendment, which would stop federal funds for new programs created by H.R. 3962, and the Nelson-Hatch Amendment, which would also restrict such funding in the Senate health-care reform bill.
If you haven't done so, now is the critical time for action: Contact your representatives and senators at (202) 224-3121 or by visiting the websites of the Senate and House. Then contact the White House at (202) 456-2111 or fax (202) 456-2461 with the following:
1. Tell your representatives and senators to quit fast-tracking these momentous bills without a period of debate and during secret weekend sessions when America is least attentive;
2. Tell your representatives and senators of your extreme disappointment of them approving the outrageous omnibus spending bill, spending frivolously under America's recession and adding more to our national debt.
3. Tell your representatives and senators to support the Stupak-Pitts Amendment and the Nelson-Hatch Amendment in the House and Senate health-care bills.
4. Call or write the White House and demand that President Obama not sign the outrageous omnibus bill (with pro-abortion provisions and more than 5,200 earmarks) into law.
5. Join 300,000 people who have signed the Manhattan Declaration to fight for the unborn by doing the same.
6. Share this column with your pro-life pastor, priest, family and friends, and encourage them to mobilize troops on these pieces of legislation.
7. Get involved with a local pro-life organization, like my wife, Gena, who supports the Dallas Council for Life and the Dallas Pregnancy Resource Center. She'll be speaking again for the group in January.
Lastly, as we sit on the eve of another Christmas, I wonder: What would have happened if Mother Mary were covered by Obamacare? What if that young, poor uninsured teenaged woman were provided the federal funds (via Obamacare) and facilities (via Planned Parenthood, etc.) to avoid the ridicule, ostracizing, persecution and possible stoning because of her out-of-wedlock pregnancy? Imagine all the great souls who could have been erased from history and the influence of mankind, if only they too would have been as progressive as Washington's wise men and women!
America doesn't need to "turn the page" on culture wars like abortion. It needs to reopen the pages of its history to our founders' elevated views of and rights for all human beings (including those in the womb) as documented in the Declaration of Independence and our Constitution. We need to revive and re-instill their value of humanity back into society, our children and our children's children.
And, most of all, Washington needs to run our government as Thomas Jefferson outlined, when he wrote in 1809, "The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government."
(Don't miss my Christmas column next week, titled "Away with the manger," about how the feds are whitewashing America's Judeo-Christian heritage via a progressive, politically correct and pro-Muslim platform.)
