FRCA Asks: 'What did Representatives Perriello, Kildee and Oberstar Receive in Exchange for Betraying the Pro-Life Cause?'

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Mar 17, 2010, 06:08 ET

What Backroom Deal Did Speaker Pelosi and President Obama Offer?

WASHINGTON, Feb. 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today and yesterday three self-proclaimed pro-lifers, U.S. Reps. Tom Perriello (D-VA.), Dale Kildee (D-MI) and Jim Oberstar (D-MI), all declared support for the Senate health care bill, despite its provisions that would both directly fund abortion and subsidize health plans that include elective abortion. The Senate bill bypasses the Hyde amendment, which has been renewed annually for over 30 years.

The Senate bill does not contain language offered by U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) that prohibits abortion funding, which a bipartisan majority of the House of Representatives voted to include in the "America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009" (H.R. 3962). All three Members previously voted to support the Stupak amendment.

Family Research Council Action (FRCA) Vice President Tom McClusky released the following statement:

"Outrage is growing as the media report Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), President Obama and their allies are buying votes with threats, taxpayer-funded bribes or promises of campaign cash. However, the big question is what did Representatives Perriello, Kildee and Oberstar receive in exchange for selling out the pro-life cause and moving forward with the largest expansion of elective abortion since Roe v. Wade?

"All three cite their Catholic faith yet ignore the counsel of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), who stated that the Senate bill 'expands federal funding and the role of the federal government in the provision of abortion procedures. In so doing, it forces all of us to become involved in an act that profoundly violates the conscience of many, the deliberate destruction of unwanted members of the human family still waiting to be born.'

"It's very likely we won't learn until after the bill is passed exactly what the three Congressmen were promised in exchange for betraying mothers and their unborn children. How they reconcile such a vote with their faith will be on their consciences, but we will make sure their constituents remember this duplicity for a long time. We call on all pro-life members to hold firm in opposition to this bill."

SOURCE Family Research Council Action