In a widely expected move, President Barack Obama vetoed legislation that would have repealed most of Obamacare’s mandates and taxes, and defunded Planned Parenthood in favor of other healthcare centers that provide higher levels of health care, but not abortions.
According to the Washington Examiner, in vetoing the bill, Obama said since Obamacare took effect, more than 17 million Americans have received health insurance coverage.
“Healthcare has changed for the better, setting this country on a smarter, stronger course,” he said.
“President Obama’s gall is stunning,” said Rep. Diane Black, author of the Defund Planned Parenthood Act of 2015, in a statement. “He spent this week discussing the need to ‘protect innocent people’ and ‘save more lives’ yet he callously vetoed a bill to protect the most innocent and vulnerable among us from the heinous abuses of Planned Parenthood.”
Black continued:
What’s more, he denied Americans a chance at relief from his disastrous healthcare law that – nearly six years later – still remains underwater in public opinion polls. The President’s veto is a reminder that Democrats own Obamacare. They passed it over the objections of the American people without a single Republican vote and continue to place loyalty to this failed law over the loyalty they owe to their constituents who suffer Obamacare’s burdensome costs and consequences. I am pleased that, for the first time in his presidency, conservatives finally made President Obama show his hand, as opposed to the tradition of years past when Harry Reid kept every politically tough decision off the President’s desk. In doing so, we set up an important moment of contrast and proved that President Obama is the one person standing between the dismantling of Obamacare and the restoration of a culture of life.
“The House and the Senate have spoken, reflecting the will of the American people, and sent a bill to President Obama’s desk that would bar Planned Parenthood from the vast majority of taxpayer dollars it currently receives,” said Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), co-chair of the bipartisan Pro-Life Caucus. “And now the President has spoken, rejecting our bill and condoning Planned Parenthood’s cruel and inhumane actions.”
Smith observed the series of undercover videos released last year exposing Planned Parenthood’s apparent practices of harvesting the body parts of aborted babies and selling them on the open market, and altering the positions of babies during abortion in order to harvest intact organs.
“We will not be deterred in exposing this Planned Parenthood scandal, no matter how aggressive and misleading the cover-up,” Smith concluded.
Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, said, despite Obama’s veto, Congress’ use of the reconciliation process to redirect funds from Planned Parenthood – “a likely criminal organization” – to other health care facilities is “historic.”
“This veto – only one of eight bills that Obama has vetoed and the very first pro-life one – underscores the need for the nation to elect a pro-life president in 2016,” she added, “one who does the will of the people instead of pandering to a corrupt and deceitful organization that betrays women and sells them, and their preborn babies, out for the bottom line.”
Father Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, said of Obama, “We already knew that President Obama has a callous disregard for babies in the womb and even babies who survive abortions. With this veto, he not only continues to trample on their rights and the broken hearts of their mothers, he rewards their oppressors.”
“There is no justification for the government to fund and thereby promote Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion business,” Pavone continued. “This may be the first time a president has received legislation to remove Planned Parenthood’s tentacles from the nation’s treasury, it will not be the last.”
On Wednesday, Planned Parenthood Action Fund announced the abortion business has endorsed Hillary Clinton for president in 2016.
Rep. Tim Huelskamp tweeted out his comment regarding Planned Parenthood’s endorsement:
There would be millions more voters for @HillaryClinton if Planned Parenthood hadn’t murdered them. #PP #prolife https://t.co/KDRZAhMdDL
— Cong. Tim Huelskamp (@CongHuelskamp) January 8, 2016
The GOP-led Congress may attempt to override Obama’s veto of the legislation, though Republicans don’t currently have the votes to accomplish an override.
Republican leaders failed to defund Planned Parenthood in the $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill approved in December for fear of being blamed for a government shutdown. The abortion business’ funding was even increased throughout most of 2016.
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