Distractions and Distortions: The Anti-Choice Agenda Against Health Reform

What? Anti-choice groups misleading the public. Shocker, right?

Well, they are taking it to a whole new level this week.

On Wednesday, Family Research Council's Tony Perkins took his attack on health-care reform to new levels, hosting a press conference with some of the most anti-choice members of Congress and the who's-who list of right-wing zealots. His group also released this ad, which distorts the truth about the role of abortion in health-care reform:

Sorry - we won't play the ad on this site because www.BlogForChoice.com automatically shuts down when subjected to anti-choice propaganda. But here's the kicker - according to the Family Research Council, more than 49,000 people joined the live webcast during which the ad was first shown. You better believe that despite the distortions, these 49,000 people called their member of Congress.

The ad is so egregious that even Catholics United condemned it and called on the FRC to end the "public misinformation effort against health care reform."

Don't let this go unanswered. Send your own message to Congress asking your lawmakers to oppose anti-choice attacks, including attempts to take away coverage from women who already have it in their private-insurance plans.

What about the anti-choice claims of what the bills do? They're wrong again. CNN's Political Ticker Blog expanded on this, writing:

Instead, the current House version of the package would create a panel that would weigh what procedures might be covered -- an approach White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs has said is the best way to take on the issue. Gibbs told reporters earlier this month that when it came to abortion -- or other, less controversial coverage questions -- it was "better left to experts in the medical field to determine how best and what procedures to cover."

Agreed. Today, private plans can choose whether to cover abortion care - and most do. But here's the catch... Despite his rhetoric, Perkins knows this isn't about the issue of public funding, it's about using health-care reform to achieve an anti-choice agenda. His so-called "solution" to health-care reform is demanding a new nationwide abortion ban in the private health-insurance market.

This attack is no idle threat. Nancy Keenan explains how in this letter she wrote in response to Perkins:

Tony Perkins took 729 words to obscure a simple fact: What he and his allies are demanding is a new nationwide abortion ban in the private health insurance market ("Keep Abortion Funding Out of Health Care Reform," July 28).

Today, private plans can choose whether to cover the service -- and most do. If Perkins succeeds, women who purchase private insurance that now covers abortion services will lose that coverage.

The bills moving through Congress now do not reference abortion, so it's obvious that Perkins is injecting this issue unnecessarily into the health reform debate in hopes that it will bring down the whole endeavor. That's outrageous.

NARAL Pro-Choice America is to working to ensure that Perkins and his allies in Congress don't succeed in imposing a national ban on abortion services in a reformed health system - and we need your help! Send your own message to Congress asking your lawmakers to oppose anti-choice attacks, including attempts to take away coverage from women who already have it in their private-insurance plans.