Common Ground or Slippery Slope?
by Staff
July 24, 2009
WASHINGTON, (christiansunite.com) -- Today Reps. Tim Ryan (D- Ohio) and Rosa DeLauro (D-Connecticut) announced that they will again sponsor the "Preventing Unintended Pregnancies, Reducing the Need for Abortion and Supporting Parents Act." Though advertised as "common ground," the bill re-hashes approaches that have been tried, funded, and failed to reduce abortions. This time it is packaged as "a unique approach" inspired by "the spirit of President Barack Obama's call to find common ground between the pro-choice and pro-life communities.""The Ryan/DeLauro bill will fund abortion groups and programs such as 'comprehensive sex-ed' -- which has no evidence of reducing abortions. No pro-life group with a proven track record backs this bill. 'Common ground' has become an idiom for 'fund abortionists,'" stated Concerned Women for America President Wendy Wright.
"The supporters are nearly all hard-core abortion groups. It includes a smattering of groups with names that people assume to be pro-life but are fronts for abortion activists, and a few religious leaders who back the social programs but have valid doubts or lack of knowledge on how funding programs like Title X and 'comprehensive sex-ed' fails to reduce abortions. None of the people backing this bill are considered recognized and experienced pro-life leaders by the pro-life community. Regrettably, Tim Ryan, who used to be pro-life, was recently kicked off the Democrats for Life board for undermining and obstructing pro-life efforts. The Culture Program Director for Third Way, the group that drafted the bill, is the former general counsel for Planned Parenthood. This bill is a 'sheep in wolf's clothing' to direct more tax dollars and clients to groups like Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the nation.
"President Obama and liberals in Congress are feeling the heat from pro-lifers over the massive health care bill which includes abortion mandates and funding. The timing of this bill appears to be an attempt to distract people from the larger bill that will impose the Freedom of Choice Act by stealth. But pro- lifers are not fooled -- a vote for either Ryan/DeLauro or the health care bill is a vote to increase abortions."
Concerned Women for America is the nation's largest public policy women's organization.
