Obama the Dodger on Abortion Mandates

I have a mental picture of Obama feinting left, then right. Trying to dodge the direct hit from the giant fist that has abortion mandates in health care reform written all over it. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs responded to the abortion mandate question yesterday that unnamed “medical experts” would decide what procedures would be covered. Get it — it won’t be Obama, who wants to keep his hands “clean.” But, it will be someone his administration appoints. What a dodge!

Then Gibbs said that Obama supports the Hyde Amendment — you know — the amendment that prohibits federal taxpayer funding of abortion. The amendment that Obama strongly opposed as a Senator and during the campaign. Wow — what an overnight conversion, if it can be believed.

In the meantime, Planned Parenthood is getting hysterical. Did you know that we are publishing lies about an amendment that would have provided a woman with preventive health? That we want to deny women breast cancer screenings and pap smears? “But there is no longer any doubt that anti-choice forces have zeroed in on the effort to build health care reform majorities in the House and Senate as their chance to strike a devastating blow to women’s access to reproductive health care, including …abortion,” sniped PP president Cecile Richards.

PP is even beating up on one of its own, urging its followers to contact pro-abortion Senator Max Baucus to demand that abortion be included in health care reform legislation. Stay tuned. The infighting is getting more and more intense.

Barbara Lyons