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Rep. Chris Smith: Obama Administration Trying to 'Remake America as the Culture of Death'

Submitted by Brian Tashman on January 27, 2012 - 4:00pm

Today on Washington Watch Weekly with Family Research Council president Tony Perkins, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) laced into President Obama, whom he called the “abortion president,” for appointing “radically pro-abortion” people to the government who are promoting “evil” with an “anti-child, anti-woman mentality.”

Smith: When you have the coercive power of the state in the hands of the abortion president who litmus tests virtually everybody in his administration to ensure that they are radically pro-abortion and very often come right out of the ranks of Planned Parenthood or NARAL or EMILY’s List to hold these positions and then they do their dirty work every day of the week and then they fund non-governmental organizations like Planned Parenthood who then continue promoting this evil, and this anti-child, anti-woman mentality.

Smith went on to tell Perkins that the Obama administration seeks “to remake America as the culture of death” and if he wins re-elections, it “will be significantly worse in terms of extremism in promoting both the abortion issue as well as the homosexual agenda.”

Smith: They are very coercive in this administration, there is nothing benign or ‘come along and let us try to convince you,’ they tell you under power of huge penalties, and that is what ObamaCare is all about, it is riddled with penalties, everyone knows about the one if you don’t buy health insurance you can get fined. But when it comes to the moral issues, they seek to remake America as the culture of death.

…

The second four years, the second term of a Barack Obama will be significantly worse in terms of extremism in promoting both the abortion issue as well as the homosexual agenda.

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Far-Right Already Using Live Action’s Smear Campaign to Push Anti-Choice Legislation

Submitted by Brian Tashman on February 2, 2011 - 12:20pm

As Kyle notes, Religious Right organizations have launched a coordinated effort to bring down Planned Parenthood just as the House is set to hold hearings on the misleadingly-named “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act,” H.R. 3, that attempts to end insurance coverage for abortion and even redefine 'rape.' The House may also take-up Rep. Mike Pence’s “Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act,” which would strip funding to Planned Parenthood that goes towards women’s health services.

Republican leaders have had no problems using smears in their drive to pass anti-choice legislation in the past. Speaker John Boehner and Rep. Michele Bachmann falsely claimed that women in Pennsylvania were using federal dollars to pay for abortions as a result of the health care reform law. Bachmann suggested that defunding Planned Parenthood would help solve the country’s budget deficit, and Pence even used the unemployment rate as a reason to end funding to Planned Parenthood.

Rep. Chris Smith, the chief sponsor of H.R.3, and Rep. Joe Pitts, who sponsored the Stupak-Pitts Amendment and is the Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Health, both participated in a 2009 Religious Right campaign warning of a “a massive effort to mandate taxpayer-funded abortions” through the health care reform law and blasting Planned Parenthood funding: “Citing the $350 million in taxpayer money handed over to Planned Parenthood, the U.S. abortion industry’s largest business, it warned, ‘Now they want even more!’” And Pitts absurdly claimed on Fox News that the health care reform law would “compel communities who don’t have [abortion] service to provide it.”

That same year, Religious Right leader Gary Bauer called upon activists to attack Planned Parenthood just as James O’Keefe targeted ACORN: “Planned Parenthood deserves the same treatment ACORN is getting and should be stripped of the hundreds of millions of tax-payer dollars it receives annually.”

Earlier this week, Smith told Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association that the GOP leadership is solidly behind his bill, and that “Planned Parenthood and the others in the abortion rights movement” who oppose his legislation “are just are trying to poison the waters while they literally poison the child to death.”

Marjorie Dannenfelser of the Susan B. Anthony List is already using Live Action’s video in her demand for Congress to pass anti-choice legislation:

The horror exposed in the video released yesterday was not an isolated incident in the history of a group willing to be a chief ally in the exploitation of women and girls. The unbroken chain of Planned Parenthood's violations is appalling. Yet, this organization insists that it deserves taxpayers' continued support. The moment for taxpayers to reject their compulsory funding of the exploitation of women has arrived. If this organization doesn't shut down its gruesome business altogether, it should at least operate on its own dime. The SBA List and other groups in this coalition are calling upon pro-life America to contact their Representatives and urge them to support the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act. Planned Parenthood must be defunded.

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Republican Leaders Continue To Embrace Bryan Fischer

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on February 1, 2011 - 10:55am

As we have said time and time again, the American Family Association's Bryan Fischer is among the most openly and viciously bigoted Religious Right leaders active today ... but that does not seem to bother any of the Republican leaders who continually appear on his radio program.

Just last week, Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker joined Fischer to discuss his anti-choice legislation, and before that it was presidential hopeful Tim Pawlenty telling Fischer he'll reinstate Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

This is in addition to past appearances from Sen. Jim Inhofe, Sen. Jim DeMint, Rep. Lamar Smith, Rep. Alan Nunnelee, and Rep. Raul Labrador.

And the pattern continues, as in the last few days Fischer has had two more Republican members on Congress on his program, starting last Friday with Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey who joined Fischer to discuss his anti-choice efforts:

And then on Monday, Rep. Jack Kingston of Georgia also joined Fischer to discuss his appearance on Bill Maher and defend his Creationist views:

Bryan Fischer spends the majority of his time viciously attacking gays and Mulsims (and bears) and yet Republican leaders are eager to make time to regularly join him on his radio program.

 

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Right Unites to Fight Health Care Reform

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on July 22, 2009 - 11:05am

We have been collecting everything that the Religious Right has been saying about efforts to pass health care reform for an upcoming Right Wing Watch In Focus report and, in doing so, quickly noticed that their primary focus was on claiming that any such plan would lead to public financing of abortion.

Until recently, activists and organization had been primarily making this case individually, but now it looks like several of them have decided to team-up for a nationwide webcast tomorrow evening:

Pro-life groups, including Focus on the Family, are hosting a webcast Thursday at 9 p.m. EDT to educate and mobilize pro-lifers against President Obama's healthcare reform bill, which currently mandates public and private insurance coverage of abortion.

The healthcare reform has hit a roadblock in the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. Fiscally conservative Democrats, known as Blue Dogs, have balked at the cost of the plan.

Pro-life advocates are hoping the delay allows them to marshal support for amendments that would take the federal funding of abortions out of the bill.

"We are advocating amendments that would simply remove any mandates for abortion, remove any federal subsidies for abortion," said Douglas Johnson, legislative director of the National Right to Life.

Others agree that this is a watershed event for the pro-life movement.

Marjorie Dannenfelser of the Susan B. Anthony List said: "It is without question the biggest event since Roe v. Wade when it comes to the pro-life issue."

Participants include James Dobson, Charmaine Yoest, Tony Perkins, Frank Pavone, Marjorie Dannenfelser, Wendy Wright, Tom Minnery, Rep. Chris Smith, Richard Land, Day Gardner, and several others, including Mike Huckabee, according to Dan Gilgoff.

Politico has more on their effort:

A coalition of anti-abortion groups is set to open a new front against Democrats’ efforts to restructure American health care, claiming the plans open a back door to publicly financed abortions.

The groups, which are launching a broad campaign on the issue this week, claim that existing health care proposals constitute a stealth “abortion mandate” that will spend taxpayer money on abortions and require insurance companies to cover abortions — allegations that health care reform supporters call misleading.

“President Obama keeps on talking about common ground, and there is really, really common ground on funding issues,” said Charmaine Yoest, president of Americans United for Life, the group organizing the planned three-week campaign on the issue. “Almost no one wants to fund abortion, regardless of their position on abortion as a whole.”

Yoest’s group plans to release a letter to Barack Obama on Thursday in which it cites, according to its reading of proposed legislation, “our belief that the bills are intended to include abortion.”

The noisy, contentious health care debate — which has grown pointedly acrimonious in recent days — has proceeded largely without reference to abortion. But the decision of these high-profile conservative groups to launch the new campaign under the rubric “Stop the Abortion Mandate” may change that and provide a new obstacle to the reform legislation.

The leaders involved include Christian conservatives such as James Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family; Family Research Council President Tony Perkins; and the Southern Baptist Convention’s Dr. Richard Land, who will be launching the push in a webcast Thursday evening.

“We just realized how urgent the situation was, what was at stake,” said David Bereit, the national director of 40 Days for Life, another group involved in the campaign, which will focus on generating pressure on members of Congress to insist on an explicit ban on abortion within the legislation.

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