Life Links 3/9/10

Health care, health care, health care.

Bart Stupak had a town hall meeting where he discussed the health care bill and his position on it. He told the Associated Press that he "more optimistic" than he was a week ago that the bill could be changed to get his approval.

"The president says he doesn't want to expand or restrict current law (on abortion). Neither do I," Stupak said. "That's never been our position. So is there some language that we can agree on that hits both points — we don't restrict, we don't expand abortion rights? I think we can get there."

Stupak is apparently being courted fairly heavily.

Stupak was invited last week to the Russian Opera in President Barack Obama's box. He told the crowd he respectfully declined.

The AP also has an article focused on abortion and health care reform where we learn President Obama is supposedly open to fixing the loophole which allows abortion funding in community health centers.

Q: Don't abortion opponents have other concerns about the bill?

A: A major one has to do with $11 billion that Obama wants to pump into community health centers serving low-income people and the uninsured. As the bill is currently written, those funds are not explicitly covered by the Hyde amendment.

White House health overhaul spokeswoman Linda Douglass says Obama is willing to clarify the language.

There's also this tidbit.

Abortion rights groups such as Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice America say the House and Senate versions of the bill represent the biggest expansion of abortion restrictions in years, yet they're not trying to defeat the measures.

Hmmmm.....I wonder why? When bills which have small abortion restrictions are introduced PP and NARAL go all out against them but not much more than a press release calling on Congress to fix the Nelson amendment when they're facing the "biggest expansion of abortion restrictions in years." Something doesn't add up.


Penny Young Nance has a piece at FOXNews entitled, "Unless Abortion Funding Is Removed, There's No Way Health Care Will Pass."


Cassy Fiano writes her reaction to Angie Jackson's abortion live-tweeting and the following publicity.

Angie shrugs it off like she was throwing out some trash. And that is appalling to me, that is what I’m completely incapable of understanding. You would think that the decision to have an abortion would be one of the hardest decisions a woman would ever have to make. I am pro-life, and I find abortion a horrible, horrible atrocity. My heart still goes out to the women who think that they have no other choice and have to endure it. Yet Angie encourages women to just do it because “it’s not that bad”. How can someone be so cold?