President Barack Obama has selected a pro-abortion
Catholic governor, who has been told by her bishop not to present herself for communion, to head the Department of Health and Human Services.
Writing last year in his diocesan newspaper, Bishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, discussed a meeting with Gov. Kathleen Sebelius where he told her “that someday she’s going to have to stand before God and account for her public service.”
The Catholics United/Catholics in Alliance/Catholic Democrats axis of Obama supporters immediately
cheered the selection of Sebelius, with Catholics United having enough notice of the pick to put up a Web site called “
Catholics for Sebelius.” The site presents a list of “Catholic leaders” supporting the nomination, including Doug Kmiec; Nicolas Cafardi; Margaret Steinfels, former editor of
Commonweal; and Father Thomas Reese, former editor of
America.
When Sebelius’s name was first floated for HHS, Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League,
noted that almost every Obama appointee is pro-abortion, but the selection of Sebelius would create “a battle between those Catholics who are honestly pro-life, and those who feign a pro-life position while always embracing the likes of Sebelius.”
The battle may have already started. Obama’s Catholic supporters are definitely feeling confident, as they have attacked both Bishop Naumann and Donohue for their criticism of Governor Sebelius. They seem unconcerned with the recent
wrist-slapping given Speaker Nancy Pelosi by Pope Benedict XVI at the private audience she requested in Rome, or the subsequent statement of Denver’s Archbishop Charles Chaput that Pelosi should not present herself for communion.
Sebelius’s record on abortion refutes any attempt she or her supporters may make to soften her image. She has claimed to “have worked hard to ensure that abortions are rare, safe, and within the bounds of the law.” But Sebelius
vetoed bills that would have created abortion safety regulations and protected women from being coerced into having abortions.
Most notoriously, Sebelius
hosted a 2007 party honoring Wichita late-term abortionist George Tiller, who
by his own account has
performed over 60,000 abortions. Two months after the Sebelius party in Tiller’s honor, he was arrested and
arraigned on 19 criminal counts for illegal late-term abortions.
Obama’s selection of Sebelius came the day after he rescinded the HHS “conscience exemption” put in place by the Bush administration. In December, Sec. Mike Leavitt announced a “right-to-refuse” rule allowing medical care personnel not to participate in practices they found morally objectionable, such as abortion.
As expected, the new Obama administration is removing, one by one, all the restrictions set up against abortion and its federal funding, that have been put in place since
Roe v. Wade in 1973. Obama
lifted the Mexico City policy only days after his inauguration, allowing federal dollars to be given to organizations performing abortions overseas.
Although the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) has not yet been introduced, the strategy of the Obama administration appears to be pursuing the equivalent outcomes of FOCA without passing FOCA itself. Putting someone like Governor Sebelius at the helm of Health and Human Services will put tremendous pressure on all health-care institutions to provide abortions under the cover of “women’s health care.”
The first Catholic hospital system to
bend to the pressure is Caritas Christi, owned and operated by the Archdiocese of Boston. Only a few days ago, maybe eager to cozy up to the Obama administration and Sebelius, Caritas Christi announced a joint venture with the Centene Corporation to join a state-mandated health-insurance program that would include coverage for abortion and contraceptives — what the Catholic hospital system
calls “confidential family-planning services.”
No tags
1) In 2008, Sebelius vetoed SB 386 that would have informed women that if they are being coerced in to an abortion, they have the right to refuse. Sebelius’ veto insured that coerced abortions, a huge national problem, continue in Kansas, effectively insuring a higher number of abortions. (View documentation of coerced abortions in Kansas.)
2) Sebelius vetoed bills that would have provided safety regulations in spite of evidence of several botched abortions requiring emergency hospitalization, including one abortion death. Operation Rescue bought and closed one of the mills that Sebelius referred to as meeting “the highest standards of medical care in the country.” The building was unsafe, with mold and roach infestations, out of code plumbing and electrical, and filthy conditions.
3) In April, 2007, Sebelius hosted a party honoring late-term abortionist George Tiller and his entire staff while Tiller was under investigation by the Attorney General and Kansas Board of Healing Arts. Two months later, Tiller was criminally charged. In May of 2007, Sebelius attended a raucous party given by Planned Parenthood on the occasion of her birthday. Five months later, Planned Parenthood was charged with 107 criminal counts, including 23 felonies related to illegal abortions.
No tags
Sebelius has long been an avid supporter of the most radical abortion policies.
In an interview published twenty years ago on October 29, 1989, in the Wichita Eagle, Sebelius, who was then a member of the Kansas House of Representatives said, “I think for me and a lot of other people, there are certain inalienable rights established for a person, but those are not applied in utero.”
Sebelius has ties to late-term abortionist George R. Tiller, who is currently facing 19 criminal counts of having committed illegal late-term abortions.
Photographs obtained by Operation Rescue show that Sebelius hosted a lavish secret party for Tiller and his entire abortion clinic staff at the official governor’s mansion, Cedar Crest, in April, 2007. The source of the photos, who actually attended the party, told Operation Rescue that it was an “invitation only” party to honor Tiller and his staff for their abortion work.
Operation Rescue made an open records request for documents related to the party, including funding. After much stonewalling, the request was answered, but the party was listed under the name of a PAC, not under Tiller’s name or his abortion clinic, Women’s Health Care Services.
Sebelius told the press that the party was the prize at an auction event that benefitted the PAC, and that the state was reimbursed for the expense. However, records show the state initially paid for the party, and was only reimbursed by the PAC – conveniently – on the very day that the open records request was finally answered a year and a half after the event, giving the strong appearance of impropriety.
Based on the eye-witness source and the open records evidence, which indicates the “auction prize” story was cooked, Sebelius’ account of the Tiller party just does not add up and should not be believed for one minute.
No tags
