Washington D.C., Aug 19, 2009 / 16:00 pm
Just ahead of President Obama's evening teleconference to promote his health care reform initiative to some faith-based groups, Tony Perkins, the president of the group Family Research Council Action, held a conference call with reporters to discuss the need to prevent abortion from being funded by the government under the guise of health care reform.
Referring to the current legislation being considered by Congress, Perkins said, "We readily acknowledge that if you do a word search of the thousand-plus-page bill, you won't find the word ‘abortion.’ You also won't find the word ‘tonsilectomy,’ nor will you find the word ‘bypass.’
"But you will find 'essential health care services,' and when you follow the trail to how this administration defines that, they include reproductive health care, which this administration readily admits includes abortion," Perkins stated to reporters.