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Obama Leaving Abortion Responsibility to Lower Pay Grades
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President Obama clearly wants abortion services as part of the health care package, but he is not being honest with the American people.
Highlights
Inside Catholic (www.insidecatholic.com)
7/24/2009 (1 decade ago)
Published in Politics & Policy
WASHINGTON, D.C. (Inside Catholic) - Everyone remembers Obama's answer to Rick Warren's question during the campaign about abortion -- that it was "above my pay grade."
Now that Obama has assumed the highest pay grade in the United States, he is avoiding responsibility for abortion policy and assigning responsiblity to lower pay grades in his administration.
During his interview with Katie Couric two days ago, in response to a question about abortion coverage in universal health care, Obama said he did not want to "micromanage" benefits, but would leave that to either Secretary Sebelius or a "panel of experts."
That puts Obama in the position of claiming the abortion coverage was not his decision but that of his "experts," or none other than the pro-abortion Catholic running the Department of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius.
Obama is also using subordinates to rally abortion supporters to lobby Congress. LifeNews reports that Tina Tchen , director of the White House Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs, assured those at a Planned Parenthood 2009 Organizing and Policy Summit last week, of the president's commitment to abortion coverage in health care.
(The White House Office of Public Engagement used to be known as the Office of Public Liaison, until Obama renamed it.)
Tchen urged supporters of Planned Parenthood to lobby Congress to keep abortion services in the health care package: "Women must not be worse off after health care reform than they are today -- that means including reproductive health care [abortion] in the reform package."
This message comes from a long-time personal friend of the president and an important member of the Obama administration, the head of the White House Office:
BOTTOM LINE? THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION IS ASKING ABORTION SUPPORTERS TO PRESSURE MEMBERS OF CONGRESS!
Tina Tchen is a member of Obama's inner circle. She bundled $200,ooo for him in the presidential campaign and supported his senate campaign as well. She is a graduate of Harvard and Northwestern, a Chicago lawyer, feminist, and is known for her support for women's rights, including abortion and ERA.
President Obama clearly wants abortion services as part of the health care package, but he is not being honest with the American people, just as he was not honest in his meeting with Benedict XVI about so-called "abortion reduction."
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