FOCA-by-Stealth Timeline

How Congress and the Obama Administration are Implementing FOCA by Stealth

 

November — December 2008

November 5, 2008 — President Obama names Rahm Emanuel as White House Chief of Staff. As a U.S. Representative (D-Ill.), Emanuel supported both abortion and embryo-destroying stem cell research. He voted against the federal partial-birth abortion ban and in favor of allowing human cloning for research purposes. NARAL Pro-Choice America gave him a 100% rating for his pro-abortion voting record.

 

November 22, 2008 — President Obama announces the appointment of Ellen Moran as White House Communications Director. Moran served as Executive Director of EMILY’s List, a funding organization that helps elect pro-abortion politicians.

 

November 24, 2008 — President Obama names Melody Barnes as Director of the Domestic Policy Council, which coordinates the domestic policymaking process in the White House and advises the president on policy decisions. Previously, Barnes sat on the board of directors of EMILY’s List and served as Chief Judicial Counsel to pro-abortion Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) from 1995 to 2003.

 

December 1, 2008 — President Obama nominates Susan Rice as US Ambassador to the United Nations. Rice has expressed support for the ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), which has been widely interpreted to require state parties to maintain a liberal abortion license. Rice has served on the board of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, a funding organization for a United Nations Fund that advocates for abortion worldwide.

 

January 2009

January 5, 2009 — President Obama nominates Dawn Johnsen, formerly of the ACLU and NARAL, adamantly pro-abortion organizations, as head of the Office of Legal Counsel. This office advises the President on the constitutionality of his actions and legislation he hopes to promote, including abortion-related legislation and executive orders. Johnsen previously likened restrictions on abortion to “involuntary servitude” or slavery, and characterized pregnant women as “fetal containers.”

 

January 5, 2009 — President Obama announces the nomination of Elena Kagan to serve as U.S. Solicitor General. The Solicitor General is responsible for representing the executive branch in Supreme Court litigation. Kagan has little litigation experience, but is a strong abortion advocate, supporting, for example, taxpayer funding for abortions.

 

January 13, 2009 — Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) and 141 cosponsors introduce the Prevention First Act, which mandates that all federally funded facilities (including religious hospitals) offer “Plan B,” also known as the “morning-after pill,” or “emergency contraception.”  According to the drug’s label, it can function as an abortifacient, preventing the successful implantation of a fertilized embryo and, thus, destroying it. The proposed legislation also directs hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to pro-abortion organizations. The funding is directed to educational and contraceptive programs that may advocate or provide Plan B, as well as advocate for abortion. Although the money could not be used to directly provide abortions, it would free up other funding that organizations like Planned Parenthood receive from other governmental and nongovernmental sources so that it could be used for abortions.

 

January 15, 2009 — At Susan Rice’s confirmation hearing, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) pushes for a 60-day timeline for the Obama administration to review the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and submit it to the Senate for ratification. The UN treaty has the potential to negate state parental-involvement laws.

 

January 20, 2009 — President Obama formally nominates Tom Daschle as Secretary of Health and Human Services, a cabinet-level position responsible for advising the President on health-related matters and overseeing the Department of Health and Human Services. Daschle was a proponent of expanded federal funding for embryo-destructive stem cell research and voted against banning human cloning. (Daschle’s nomination was subsequently withdrawn.)

 

January 21, 2009 — Hillary Clinton is confirmed as Secretary of State, head of the Department of State, the Executive Branch’s office of foreign affairs. Clinton is an ardent abortion supporter who has promised that promoting “reproductive rights,” by which she means abortion on demand, will be at the top of the Administration’s international agenda.

 

January 22, 2009 — President Obama issues a strongly worded statement in support of Roe v. Wade on the decision’s 36th anniversary: “[Roe] not only protects women’s health and reproductive freedom, but stands for a broader principle: that government should not intrude on our most private family matters. I remain committed to protecting a woman’s right to choose.”

 

January 23, 2009 — President Obama signs an executive order repealing the Mexico City Policywhich prohibited federal taxpayer dollars from going to organizations which promote or perform abortions overseas.

 

January 26, 2009 — Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) reveals that James B. Steinberg, Obama’s nominee for Deputy Secretary of State, called the Mexico City Policy “an unconstitutional limitation on free speech” when applied to organizations based in the U.S. that used federal funds to pay for overseas abortions.

 

January 29, 2009 — The U.S. Senate rejects the Hatch Amendment to the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) renewal bill.  The amendment would have codified the administrative rule giving states the option of covering unborn children under the program. Because it failed, the unborn-child rule remains one which the Obama administration may rescind at its pleasure.

 

February 2009

February 5, 2009 — President Obama introduces his President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. One of the Council’s four key priorities is to advise the President on how to reduce the “need” for abortion. Notably, the President carefully avoids suggesting a desire to reduce the number of abortions.

 

February 27, 2009 — President Obama announces his intention to rescind the “Bush conscience rules.” These rules provide much-needed enforcement mechanisms for existing federal laws protecting the right of public healthcare employees to refuse participation in procedures to which they object (such as abortion, sterilization, and contraception).

 

March 2009

March 1, 2009 — President Obama nominates Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius to serve as Secretary of Health and Human Services. Sebelius is a prominent abortion supporter, first in the Kansas legislature and later as Governor of Kansas. For example, she opposed even the most modest restrictions permitted under Roe. Importantly, the Secretary of Health and Human Services is responsible for advising the President on health-related matters.

 

March 5, 2009 — Senate rejects “Wicker Amendment” to omnibus appropriations bill (HR 1105); the Amendment would have forbidden taxpayer funding of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). The UNFPA has publicly stated that abortion is an appropriate solution to child poverty. It has also been complicit in brutal population control programs in China, North Korea, and elsewhere that include forced abortions, forced sterilizations, and other human-rights abuses.

 

March 05, 2009 — The White House holds a health care summit, discussing the direction of healthcare policy and, in particular, the President’s plans for national health care. Included are abortion advocacy groups like Planned Parenthood, the Human Rights Campaign, the National Council of La Raza, and the National Partnership for Women and Families. No major pro-life medical groups are invited.

 

March 06, 2009 — President Obama announces a new foreign policy position to focus on women’s issues. The post is to be occupied by Melanne Verveer, former chief of staff to First Lady Hillary Clinton and co-founder of “Vital Voices,” a pro-abortion international feminist organization. She will advocate on “women’s health” issues on the international scene.

 

March 11, 2009 — President Obama announces the new “White House Council on Women and Girls.” Executive Director of the Council is Tina Tchen, White House Director of Public Liaison and former Vice President of the pro-abortion National Organization for Women (NOW). Signing attendees include representatives from Planned Parenthood, NOW, and other pro-abortion organizations, but no pro-life women’s organizations.

 

March 11, 2009 — President Obama signs an omnibus spending bill, providing $50 million to the United Nations Population Fund and $545 million for a variety of “reproductive health” programs worldwide.

 

March 11, 2009 — Senate confirms nomination of David Ogden as Deputy Attorney General, the second-highest law-enforcement position in the United States. In 1992, Ogden filed an amicus brief in Planned Parenthood v. Casey on behalf of the American Psychological Association which was dismissive of abortion’s psychological effects on women.

 

March 12, 2009 — President Obama nominates Ronald H. Weich as Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legislative Affairs. During the Bush Administration, testifying before Congress about the “Unborn Victims of Violence Act,” which passed Congress with large bipartisan majorities, Weich said that the Act was “just one more step in the anti-abortion movement’s methodical strategy to humanize fetuses, marginalize women, demonize abortion providers and make the image of abortion less palatable to the American people.” In his new position, Weich will advise President Obama on the selection of judicial nominees.

 

March 17, 2009 — President Obama nominates David Hamilton to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Hamilton is an abortion extremist who was sharply reprimanded by a Seventh Circuit panel for his seven-year obstruction of Indiana’s enforcement of an informed-consent law.

 

March 23, 2009 — President Obama nominates Harold Koh as Legal Advisor to the State Department. Koh has advocated the ratification of the international Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) which, as mentioned earlier, has been widely interpreted to require state parties to maintain a liberal abortion license.

 

March 30, 2009 — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton receives the Margaret Sanger Award from Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider.

 

April 2009

April 6, 2009 — President Obama announces the addition of Harry Knox, abortion advocate and director of the religion and faith program of the Human Rights Campaign, to the White House office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

 

April 21, 2009 — Ellen Moran announces her resignation as White House Communications Director and accepts a position as Chief of Staff to Gary Locke, the administration’s Secretary of Commerce. Moran is the former director of EMILY’s List, a funding organization that seeks to elect pro-abortion women to public office.

 

April 22, 2009 — The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announces that it will not appeal a judge’s order to make “Plan B” (or “emergency contraception”) available to 17-year-olds without a prescription.

 

April 28, 2009 — Kathleen Sebelius confirmed as Secretary of HHS.

 

May 2009

May 7, 2009 — President Obama releases his fiscal year 2010 budget proposal, which removes restrictions barring District of Columbia from using its public funds to pay for abortions and lifts restrictions that previously kept the Legal Services Corporation from funding pro-abortion litigation. While it does not propose to eliminate the Hyde amendment, which forbids federal Medicaid funding for abortion, Congress could still eliminate the Hyde restrictions by amendment.

 

May 13, 2009 — The White House releases a report titled “Roadblocks to Health Care: Why the Current Health Care System Does Not Work for Women.” The report emphasizes the importance of “reproductive health” to the Administration’s efforts to pass a single-payer healthcare system.

 

May 18, 2009 — Margaret Hamburg confirmed by Senate as head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). As New York City Health Commissioner, the avowedly pro-abortion Hamburg oversaw city-provided abortion counseling services.

 

May 26, 2009 — President Obama nominates Judge Sonia Sotomayor, of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, to the U.S. Supreme Court. When Sotomayor was on the governing board of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund (PRLDEF), the Fund filed several amicus briefs with the Supreme Court, taking abortion positions far more extreme than those of Justice David Souter, who she was nominated to replace. When the Supreme Court said the federal government was not constitutionally required to fund abortions, PRLDEF compared the Court’s decision to its earlier decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford, which denied the citizenship of African-Americans.

 

May 29, 2009 — White House assures abortion supporters that Judge Sonia Sotomayor agrees with and will uphold the “constitutional underpinnings” of Roe v. Wade.

 

June 2009

June 4, 2009 — Senate Judiciary Committee votes to approve David Hamilton for appointment to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.

 

June 5, 2009 — White House holds “Women’s Healthcare Stakeholder Discussion” regarding the future of domestic health policy. Attendees include representatives from Planned Parenthood and National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association.

 

June 10, 2009 — House of Representatives votes to approve H.R. 2410, the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, which creates new “Office for Global Women’s Issues” to coordinate and support, among other things, an international abortion license.

 

June 17, 2009 — The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (“HELP”) Committee begins a 12- day mark-up of the “Affordable Health Choices Act” (“HELP bill”), which is not formally introduced in the Senate.  The HELP bill, along with other health care reform proposals, subsidizes and mandates coverage of abortion.  Over the course of the mark-up, pro-life amendments are defeated, including (1) Senator Mike Enzi’s (R-WY) amendments that would have prevented taxpayer funding of abortion and would prevent abortion clinics from being eligible for federally qualified health center grants; (2) Senator Orin Hatch’s (R-UT) amendments that would have prevented tax-funded abortions unless the life of the mother is endangered or unless the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest (making the Hyde Amendment permanent); (3) Senator Tom Coburn’s (R-OK) amendments that would have ensured no abortion mandates, prevented abortion clinics from being eligible for federally qualified health center grants, prevented the invalidation of state laws that regulate abortion, codified the Hyde/Weldon conscience protection law, and ensured that Americans have professional ethicists informing any Government-funded medical decisions; and (4) Senator Pat Roberts’ (R-KS) amendment which would have prevented the invalidation of state laws regulating abortion.

 

June 22, 2009 — Susan Rice, U.S. Ambassador to the UN, says the Obama Administration is actively discussing “when and how it might be possible to join” the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. As mentioned, the UN treaty has the potential to negate state parental-involvement laws.

 

June 24, 2009 — FDA approves generic form of “Plan B” (or “emergency contraception”). This approval will make the drug more cheaply (and, thus, more easily) available to teenagers, many of whom can now purchase it without a prescription.

 

June 25, 2009 — Senate confirms Harold Koh as Legal Advisor to the State Department (see March 23, 2009).

 

July 2009

July 9, 2009 — Senator Barbara Mikulski’s (D-MD) amendment is added to the HELP bill which requires insurers to cover “essential community providers . . . that serve predominantly low-income, medically under-served individuals,” which would include Planned Parenthood.

 

July 13, 2009 — Senator Edward Kennedy’s (D-MA) amendment is added to the HELP bill which provides that no healthcare provider or entity may be excluded from contracting with an insurance plan participating in “the Gateway” (the HELP bill’s healthcare exchange framework) on the basis that the provider or entity refuses to perform abortions if performing abortions would be contrary to their religious or moral believes.  However, the Kennedy amendment does not cover providers who refuse to pay for or refer patients for abortions.  It also includes a broad, undefined “cases of emergency” exception.

 

July 14, 2009 — H.R. 3200, disingenuously entitled “America’s Affordable Health Choices Act 0f 2009,” is introduced in the House of Representatives.  H.R. 3200, along with other health care reform proposals, subsidizes and mandates coverage of abortion.

 

July 15, 2009 — Speaking at Planned Parenthood’s 2009 Organizing and Policy Summit, White House Director of Public Liaison Tina Tchen urged abortion advocates to activate their grassroots supporters and to aggressively lobby Congress to ensure the inclusion of abortion in any health care reform legislation.  She also sought to assure them that the Obama administration would not buckle to pressure and remove abortion coverage from the health care reform package.

 

July 15, 2009 — The Senate HELP Committee reports out the HELP bill by a party-line vote of 13-10.

 

July 16, 2009 — House of Representatives approves H.R. 3170, the “Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act,” which will force taxpayers to fund abortion in the District of Columbia.

 

July 17, 2009 — The House Ways and Means Committee and the House Education and Labor Committee report out H.R. 3200, by votes of 23-18 and 26-22, respectively. 

 

July 30, 2009 — President Obama names recipients of the 2009 Presidential Medal of Freedom, including numerous prominent proponents of legalized destruction of unborn life, such as Sen. Ted Kennedy; Justice Sandra Day O’Connor; Nancy Brinker, whose Susan G. Komen for the Cure breast-cancer fund donates to Planned Parenthood; Ireland President Mary Robinson; Rev. Joseph Lowery, who claims that abortion is not an issue for black Americans; Billie Jean King, who worked with the abortion-advocacy group EMILY’s List, and Janet Rowley, who championed embryonic stem-cell research and other destructive initiatives while on the President’s Council on Bioethics.

 

July 30, 2009 — During the House Energy and Commerce Committee mark-up, an amendment by Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA) to H.R. 3200 passes by a vote of 30-28.  The Capps amendment prohibits the “Health Benefits Advisory Committee,” created by H.R. 3200, from mandating coverage of abortion.  However, the Capps amendment permits the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to include abortion in the services offered by public option and requires abortion coverage in the government health plan if the Hyde amendment is ever reversed.  Given Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’ pro-abortion stance, she would certainly include abortion as a service offered by a public health plan option, allowing for immediate federal funding of elective abortion coverage through the public plan.  The Capps amendment also requires that all areas of the country contain one private plan that covers abortion, and permits taxpayer subsidies of private plans that cover elective abortion. 

 

July 30, 2009 — During the House Energy and Commerce Committee mark-up, an amendment offered by Rep. Joe Pitts (R-PA) and Bart Stupak (D-MI) to H.R. 3200 is defeated by a vote of 30-29.  The Pitts-Stupak amendment would have excluded abortion from the required basic benefits that any government or private plan must offer, with an exception for cases involving a danger to the mother’s life, rape, or incest.

 

July 31, 2009 — The House Energy and Commerce Committee reports out H.R. 3200 by a vote of 31-28.