'Abortion crushes hope,' says Rep.
Chris Smith at health care press conference
Rep. Chris Smith speaks at a July 2009
press conference on health care
Pro-life leaders gathered in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday afternoon to
discuss the danger of federally-funded abortion being a part of health
care reform. One speaker, Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), said that
although President Obama ran his presidential campaign on “hope,”
“abortion crushes hope” and is “its polar opposite.”
The press conference took place at the House Triangle, a grassy
triangular area near the Capitol Building. Others present were:
Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), Representatives Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and
Mike Pence (R-Ind.) as well as the organizations Focus on the Family
Action, Susan B. Anthony List, National Right to Life Committee, Family
Research Council and Concerned Women for America.
Rep. Smith addressed the crowd on the prospect of federal funds being
used to pay for abortions under new health care reform measures. He
began by noting that President Barack Obama led his campaign based on
“hope,” but that “abortion is the antithesis of hope.”
“Abortion is violence against children, and a serious human rights
violation—not hope,” he added.
Turning his focus to mothers, Smith explained that abortion also
crushes the “hope and the spirit of women,” and that the government
needs to “defend women from abortionists, not publicly fund and
facilitate this insidious exploitation of women.”
“The myriad of word games routinely employed to divert attention from
the gruesome reality of abortion and its deleterious consequences to
women and children are now being used to suggest that the public
somehow isn’t being coerced into funding and facilitating abortion on
demand in the House and Senate health care reform bills,” he warned.
Rep. Smith then recalled Obama's words to Congress on Sept. 9, 2009,
when he said, “under our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund
abortion.”
“Oh if that were only true,” Smith lamented, adding that Americans
would not pay for abortions if the Stupak/Pitts amendment was
enacted. The amendment would have prohibited taxpayer funds from
being used for abortion, but it was defeated in a committee vote this
past July.
Also in attendance at the news conference was Wendy Wright, the
president of Concerned Women for America. Previewing her comments
to the media, Wright noted that with the current health care bill, the
government will decide which procedures Americans can receive, “with
cost as a major factor.”
“It also will fund abortion,” she insisted. “Since abortion costs
less than prenatal care, delivery and post-natal care, especially if
the mother or child has special needs, it is not unlikely that
bureaucrats will put on their green-eye shades and decide that abortion
will be covered but expensive maternal and child care is not.”
Source: CNA
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Date: October 21, 2009
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The IFRL is the largest grassroots pro-life organization in
Illinois. A non-profit organization, that serves as the state
coordinating body for local pro-life chapters representing thousands of
Illinois citizens working to restore respect for all human life in our
society. The IFRL is composed of people of different political
persuasions, various faiths and diverse economic, social and ethnic
backgrounds. Since 1973 the Illinois Federation for Right to Life has
been working to end abortion and restore legal protection to those members of the
human family who are threatened by abortion, infanticide and euthanasia. Diverse though we are, we hold one common belief - that
every human being has an inalienable right to life that is precious and must be protected. IFRL is
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