Here are a few clips from Dr. John L. Yeats’ address at the Rally for Religious Liberty at the Capitol on Tuesday, March 27. Dr. Yeats is the Executive Director of the Missouri Baptist Convention.
Full video of Dr. Yeats’ speech can be found at the MRL website. You can read text of his official statement here.
We are slowly uploading video on to our YouTube channel of the speakers from yesterday’s Rally for Religious Liberty. First up is the address from St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson:
Hi res video of Bishop Carlson’s speech can be found at the MRL website. Read text of the Bishop’s official statement here.
The following was issued by the National Right to Life Committee on January 6, 2011.
Tell Lawmakers:
REPEAL THE OBAMA HEALTH LAW AND ITS GOVERNMENT RATIONING OF LIFE-SAVING TREATMENT
Washington (January 6, 2010) – Under the Obama Healthcare Law pushed through Congress last year, Americans who could be saved will die because they can be prevented from using their own money to avoid involuntary denial of life-saving medical treatment. (To see more about the rationing provisions click here) H.R. 2 is expected to come up for a vote on January 12 in the U.S. House of Representatives.
URGENT! Please urge your Representative to vote to “yes” on H.R. 2 to repeal the Obama Healthcare Law and to speak out in debate about its rationing! Use your own words to explain:
1. You don’t want bureaucrats in Washington (the Department of Health and Human Services, based on recommendations by the Independent Payment Advisory Board) to dictate what treatment your doctor or hospital can – and can’t – give you through so-called “quality and efficiency measures.”
2. In order to protect senior citizens’ lives, we must ensure their right to get unrationed medical care under Medicare. As Medicare is slashed by billions of dollars, we must not deny older Americans the choice of adding their own money, if they wish, to get unrationed insurance – as the Obama health law would empower federal bureaucrats to do.
3. Consumers will be denied the choice of plans offered by insurers who allow their customers to spend what state bureaucrats deem an “excessive or unjustified” amount for their health insurance.
Don’t keep us from spending our own money to save our own lives!
- Please TELEPHONE the office of your U.S. House member. Give your name and address and tell them you wish to be recorded as “opposed to the Health Care Law because it will lead to rationing and violates right-to-life principles.” The office of any member of Congress can be reached through the Capitol Switchboard: 202-225-3121. You may also find direct dial numbers for both the Washington and in-state offices of your U.S. House member by calling up their individual profiles on this website, here.
- Because mail to DC House offices faces long delays due to security screening requirements, postal mail, to be effective, is best sent to the LOCAL instead of the Washington office, which you may locate in your local phone book or by going to http://[insert representative's last name].house.gov.
For additional information regarding this vote, see the letter sent to the House of Representatives by clicking here or by viewing the pdf here.
You can also view more information on H.R. 2 by visiting our Legislative Action Center by clicking here.
The following statement can be attributed to Pam Fichter, President, Missouri Right to Life:
Today, April 22nd, the Missouri Senate passed SS SCS SB 793. This bill ensures that a woman is given the opportunity to view an ultrasound of her unborn child and receives information about her child’s development 24 hours before an abortion is performed. She also must be informed of the possible pain to her unborn child from the abortion, the father’s liability for child support and alternatives to abortion. This legislation will save lives and protect women from making a decision that they may regret later.
The bill also contains language that allows Missouri to “opt out” of abortion coverage in federal health insurance exchanges. This language is critical in protecting lives and the rights of pro-life Missouri taxpayers.
Also, the Missouri House passed HB 2252. This bill extends the tax credit program for pregnancy resource centers (PRC’s). These tax credits help the PRC’s in their fundraising efforts to gain resources in order to offer alternative services to a woman in a crisis pregnancy. These PRC’s offer help to women and encourage them to choose life for their unborn child.
Both bills have advanced to the opposite chambers for further action. We thank the legislators in both chambers who are working hard to pass legislation that protects women and their unborn children. We look forward to a time when all abortions will be unthinkable.
President Obama is coming to Missouri this week to promote health care reform legislation at a fundraising event for Sen. Claire McCaskill in St. Louis.
Please join members of Missouri Right to Life’s Eastern Region as we peacefully demonstrate our objections to funding for abortion and other anti-life provisions in the proposed health care reform bills.
WHEN: Wednesday, March 10
WHERE: Renaissance Grand Hotel, 800 Washington Avenue, St. Louis (Near the Convention Center)
TIME: 5:00 PM (The fundraiser begins at 6:15 PM)
Please plan to gather in the designated area (determined by law enforcement) as close to the hotel as possible at approximately 5:00 PM. Since security and parking near the hotel will be tight, please consider parking at Union Station and taking the Metro Link to the Convention Center (tickets approx. $2.25). From that station, walk west on Washington about two blocks to the hotel.
SIGNS: You are encouraged to make your own signs for the demonstration. Suggestions are:
ABORTION IS NOT HEALTHCARE
NO TAX $$$ FOR ABORTIONS
It is of the utmost importance that we be courteous and respectful and obey all laws and requests from law enforcement.
For more information, please call 314-434-4900.
The following statement may be attributed to Douglas Johnson, legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of right-to-life affiliates in all 50 states.
Any member of Congress who votes for the final legislation proposed by President Obama will be voting for direct federal funding of elective abortion through Community Health Centers, and also an array of other pro-abortion federal subsidies and mandates.
None of President Obama’s proposed changes diminish any of the sweeping pro-abortion problems in the Senate bill, and he actually proposes to increase the funds that would be available to directly subsidize abortion procedures (through Community Health Centers) and to subsidize private health insurance that covers abortion (through the premium-subsidy tax credits program).
(click here for complete article)
Contact your Congressman and Senators Bond and McCaskill. Tell them that you are opposed to any health care bills or new proposals that fund abortion or ration health care to seniors. Click here for contact information.
The following statement may be attributed to Burke Balch, J.D., director of the National Right to Life Committee’s Robert Powell Center for Medical Ethics.
The Obama health care proposal issued this morning would take away from America’s senior citizens their current right to add their own money on top of the government Medicare contribution to get health insurance less likely to deny treatment through tightly controlled managed care. It would do so even as it cuts the government contribution to Medicare by hundreds of billions of dollars.
(click here for complete article)
White House and top congressional Democrats are not giving up on passing a pro-abortion health care bill! This is an update from National Right to Life:
WASHINGTON (Updated January 26, 2010, 9 AM EST) – The Obama White House and top Democratic congressional leaders, although shaken by the January 19 election of Republican Scott Brown to the Senate seat previously held by Senator Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), nevertheless are making plans to try to push broad health care legislation through Congress within a matter of weeks — meaning that pro-life interests remain in grave jeopardy.
On January 25, the Associated Press reported the emergence of a new plan that involves House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca.) seeking to muster enough support among House Democrats to win House passage of the health care bill (H.R. 3590) that was passed by the Senate on December 24. If the Senate Bill passes the House with no amendments, it would be sent straight to President Obama to be signed into law. (Read the AP story here.)
In recent weeks, National Right to Life (NRLC) lobbyists have been busy educating members of the House about how enactment of the abortion-related provisions of the health care bill passed by the Senate (H.R. 3590) would constitute the biggest expansion of abortion by Congress since Roe v. Wade.
“The Senate bill would result in direct federal funding of abortion, federal subsidies for private abortion insurance, and federal pro-abortion mandates,” said NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson. “This bill would be, by far, the biggest expansion of abortion ever approved by Congress since Roe v. Wade.”
Johnson explained, “In contrast, the abortion-related provisions of the health bill passed by the House on November 7 [H.R. 3962], as it was amended by the NRLC-backed Stupak-Pitts Amendment, would preserve long-established federal policies — preventing federal subsidies for abortion, preventing pro-abortion federal mandates, and protecting the conscience rights of pro-life health care providers.”
To view or download a letter sent by NRLC to members of the U.S. House, explaining six major abortion-related problems with the Senate-passed bill, click here.
This is no time to relax: Each member of the House should be urged to oppose the Senate-passed health bill (H.R. 3590) because of the provisions that would result in abortion mandates and abortion subsidies. It is especially important that Democrats who voted for the Stupak-Pitts Amendment on November 7, 2009, hear from constituents in opposition to the Senate bill. To view the House roll call on the Stupak-Pitts Amendment, click here.
The legislative situation may change rapidly — check here frequently for updated information. NRLC will continue to review any new proposals as they emerge, and will continue to urge lawmakers to oppose any bill that lacks adequate protections against federal abortion subsidies and pro-abortion mandates, or that would lead to government-dictated rationing of lifesaving medical treatments.
Time is short! Please telephone the offices of your U.S. Senators and your U.S. House member. The Washington offices of your representatives can be reached through the Capitol Switchboard, 202-224-3121. If you scroll to the bottom of this alert, you will find additional suggestions for ways to communicate with your federal representatives on this issue.
To view or download a summary of recent public opinion polls on whether abortion should be covered in health care legislation, click here.
To view the NRLC scorecard showing how your representative in the U.S. House of Representatives has voted on key pro-life issues during the current Congress, click here. To view the NRLC scorecard for the U.S. Senate for the current Congress, click here. To look up the entire voting record of any current member of Congress on NRLC-scored issues, click here, then enter the name of the lawmaker. Once you reach the lawmaker’s profile, chose the “Votes” tab. For lawmakers who have served for more than a few years, scroll to the bottom of the list of displayed votes and click “More Key Votes” to see his or her entire record back to 1997.
What You Can Do Now
* In addition, please TELEPHONE the offices of your two U.S. Senators, and your U.S. House member. Give your name and address, and tell the lawmakers’ staff persons that you wish to be recorded as “opposed to the health care legislation, because the abortion language adopted by the Senate is unacceptable.” The offices of any member of Congress can be reached through 202-224-3121. You can also find the direct-dial numbers (and fax numbers) for the Washington and in-state offices of your U.S. Senators and House member by calling up their individual profiles on this website.
* Also, please send short letters to the “letters to the editor” features of your local newspapers, in order to alert your fellow pro-life citizens to the pro-abortion policies that the Obama White House and the pro-abortion lobby are trying to smuggle into law through “health care reform.” You can find contact information for your local news media in our “Media Guide” here.
Missouri Right to Life is the Missouri affiliate of the National Right to Life Committee.
The Missouri House of Representatives has passed HCR 18, a resolution opposing the National health care legislation. HCR 18 contains opposition to tax-funded abortions and end of life decision making in federal health insurance bill. The following text is from the MRL memo sent to legislators this morning in support of HCR 18:
With her vote against the Nelson-Hatch amendment, McCaskill has broken her promise to Missourians. McCaskill promised she would not support legislation that included federal funding for abortions. The Nelson-Hatch amendment would have prevented funding for abortions in any new public option for health care and prevented federal subsidies for any plan that included abortion. Her vote against this amendment allows Sen. Harry Reid’s health care proposal to retain such funding.
McCaskill excuses her vote by saying the Hyde amendment already prevents such funding and that the Nelson-Hatch amendment prevents women from using their own money to buy abortion coverage. Both statements are false.
The Hyde amendment only prevents funding for abortion through annual appropriations to the Department of Health and Human Services. Congressman Henry Hyde proposed this amendment in l977 to prevent taxpayer-funded abortions through Medicaid. Before this amendment, more than 300,000 abortions were performed each year through Medicaid. However, the Reid bill creates new streams of funding that would not flow through the Department of Health and Human Services, so they would not be covered by the Hyde restriction.
The Nelson-Hatch amendment would not prevent women from purchasing coverage of abortion with their own money as long as no federal subsidies were also used to purchase that coverage.
Missouri taxpayers do not want to pay for abortion. We call on McCaskill to keep her promise.
–Pam Fichter, president Missouri Right to Life
