Obama Health-Care Session With Religious Reps Dodges Abortion Question

Tom McFeely reports at National Catholic Register:

During the just completed health-care reform discussion with religious representatives on BlogTalkRadio, a direct and clear question was asked about whether the president’s reform package would mandate taxpayer funding of abortion.

Unfortunately an equally clear response wasn’t forthcoming, even though President Barack Obama declared later in the discussion that it’s “not true” that his plan involves funding of abortion.

Instead, in response to the direct question posed about abortion funding, Melody Barnes, director of Obama’s Domestic Policy Council, provided what appeared to be a deliberately misleading response.

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There’s a way for Obama and the Democratic leadership in Congress to put the matter to rest, of course. That could be done by including wording similar to the Hyde Amendment in the health-care reform bill, specifically prohibiting any federal funding of abortion services or of health benefit packages that include coverage of abortion.

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