| For immediate release: Thursday, April 12, 2012 For further information: |
NATIONAL RIGHT TO LIFE ENDORSES GOVERNOR MITT
ROMNEY
Right-to-Life Movement Focused on Defeating Barack Obama in November
WASHINGTON – Determined to secure a pro-life victory in the November election, which will decide the fate of unborn children for decades to come, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of 50 state right-to-life affiliates and more than 3,000 local chapters, today endorsed Mitt Romney for President of the United States.
“On pro-life issues, Mitt Romney and Barack Obama provide a stark contrast. As the country's most pro-abortion president, Barack Obama has pursued a radical pro-abortion agenda,” said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life. “It is now time for pro-life Americans to unite behind Mitt Romney. For the sake of unborn children, the disabled, and the elderly, we must win.”
Mitt Romney has taken a strong pro-life position and is committed to implementing policies to protect the unborn, the medically dependent and disabled, and the elderly. Romney opposes abortion and has called the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision, "a big mistake." Romney has expressed his support of the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits the use of federal funds to pay for abortion.
Romney has also stated he believes the Obama health care law should be repealed. The Obama health care law would open the door to federal subsidies for abortion coverage and rationing of lifesaving medical care. He has also stated that, if elected, he would reinstate the Mexico City Policy, which prevents federal dollars from going to organizations that perform or promote abortion overseas.
In comparison, since taking office in January 2009, President Obama has been an outspoken advocate for abortion and has unceasingly worked to expand funding of and access to abortion. He rescinded the Mexico City Policy, threatened to veto the entire federal spending bill – forcing a government shutdown – rather than accept a provision cutting funding to Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion provider. Obama also threatened to veto the Protect Life Act, which would repeal the abortion-expanding provisions of his health care law, and the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, which would permanently prohibit any federal program from funding elective abortions.
Additionally, President Obama championed the so-called Affordable Care Act while opposing pro-life amendments in the Senate. As enacted, the law will result in federal funding of health plans that pay for elective abortion, and will lead to large-scale rationing of lifesaving medical treatments.
“We are extremely gratified that every candidate who has run for the Republican nomination for president took a pro-life position and kept the life issues at the forefront of the race,” Tobias added. “We look forward to Mitt Romney's election as our next pro-life president on November 6th.”
Founded in 1968, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of 50 state right-to-life affiliates and more than 3,000 local chapters, is the nation's oldest and largest grassroots pro-life organization. Recognized as the flagship of the pro-life movement, NRLC works through legislation and education to protect innocent human life from abortion, infanticide, assisted suicide and euthanasia.
STATEMENT BY CAROL TOBIAS National Right to Life President
National Press Club April 12, 2012
National Right to Life is proud and honored to endorse Governor Mitt Romney for President of the United States.
On pro-life issues, Mitt Romney and Barack Obama provide a stark contrast. As the country’s most pro-abortion president, Barack Obama has pursued a radical pro- abortion agenda. It is now time for pro-life Americans to unite behind Mitt Romney. For the sake of unborn children, the disabled, and the elderly, we must win.
Let’s review President Obama’s abysmal record on life.
On his second day in office, January 22, 2009, President Obama issued a statement reaffirming his commitment to defend the Roe v Wade ruling, which gave us abortion on demand. On his third day in office, he overturned the “Mexico City Policy” so that hundreds of millions of our tax dollars would be given to organizations that perform and promote abortion overseas. Our tax dollars are given to organizations that go into heavily pro-life countries in Central and South America, and Africa, and are used to lobby against the current pro-life laws in those countries.
Another of his early acts was to release $50 million to the United Nations Population Fund – an agency that had received no U.S. funds under the Bush Administration because of its involvement in China’s one-child population-control program, which relies heavily upon forced abortion as part of their population control policy. Forced abortions among women who violate the one-child policy in China are commonplace and sometimes carried out up to nine months of pregnancy. They can be so violent that the women die along with their full term babies.
President Obama authorized taxpayer funding of research that requires killing human embryos.
Last spring, the United States House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act,” a bill to permanently prohibit any federal program from funding elective abortion. Prior to the vote, the Obama administration attacked the bill and threatened to veto it if passed. He wants our hard-earned tax dollars to pay for the killing of unborn children.
President Obama indicated he would veto the entire federal spending bill -- forcing a government shutdown -- rather than accept a provision cutting funding to Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider.
In February 2011, the Obama Administration rescinded a regulation that had been issued by the Bush Administration, which would have protected health-care providers from being penalized for refusing to participate in providing abortions
But even more far-reaching than all of this, is how the president is impacting our health care system. In 2010, Congress passed and President Obama signed into law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as ObamaCare. Today, every fifth child dies from abortion; that number will go even higher because of ObamaCare. This program will enshrine abortion and rationing of health care in our society for generations to come if it isn’t stopped.
While some would like to call into question Mitt Romney’s pro-life position, let me state clearly and emphatically, “Mitt Romney IS pro-life.”
Roe v. Wade is the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion on demand in all 50 states. Mitt Romney believes Roe v. Wade should be overturned.
The Hyde Amendment prevents the use of federal dollars from being used to pay for abortions through Medicaid programs. Mitt Romney supports the Hyde Amendment and opposes using our tax dollars to subsidize abortion in any way.
Governor Romney believes the Obama health care law, which would open the door to federal subsidies for abortion coverage and rationing of lifesaving medical care, should be repealed. He has also stated that, if elected, he would reinstate the Reagan-era Mexico City Policy which prevents federal dollars from going to organizations that perform or promote abortion overseas.
We are extremely gratified that every candidate who has run for the Republican nomination for president took a pro-life position and kept the life issues at the forefront of the race. We look forward to Mitt Romney’s election as our next pro-life president on November 6th.
STATEMENT
BY
RAIMUNDO ROJAS
National Right to Life Hispanic Outreach Director
National Press Club April 12, 2012
On this day, the single most dangerous place for a Latina in the United States is in her mother’s womb. Abortion rates for Hispanic women are at unprecedented highs, and the disproportion in abortion rates between Latinas and non-Hispanic women continues to grow. We now have a president who believes that pregnancy is punishment, who believes that all abortions at all levels of gestation are not only acceptable but can be encouraged. The Hispanic community knows this is wrong, and we must work to end the mindset and culture of death that so foreign to so many of us.
And it isn’t just about the destruction of the youngest members of the Latino community; we are very much concerned for our elderly. For multiple generations Hispanics have continued and made strong a tradition of taking care of our abuelos and abuelas. We are ever vigilant of their health and well-being because as a community and as a culture we recognize the wealth of their existence.
Latinos are even more in the dark than the millions of Americans who are to date still so horribly and maybe willfully uninformed about the real life dangers of Obamacare. Most in our communities and barrios are yet to understand the impact of this law. As it is, we fight on a daily basis in hospitals and clinics all over this country for even a basic understanding of what is happening to us during our illnesses or when coping with a loved one who is infirm.
Imagine the confusion, the horror and the indignation when a Mexican family in Los Angeles, or a Puerto Rican family in New York or a Nicaraguan family in Miami finally understands that the law implemented by Obama means that their loved one will not be receiving lifesaving care. They will learn too tragically late that a government appointed Junta, and not their doctors, decided that there is no justification for paying for their cherished abuela to have dialysis.
This is the reality of ObamaCare, and Latinos must be made to understand this before we go to the ballots – and National Right to Life will do all that we can to make sure that as many Hispanics as possible have a full understanding of the lethal consequences of re-electing Barrack Obama. Not only for our unborn children, but for our beloved senior citizens.
We Latinos are also a people of faith; our deep held beliefs are an integral part of our daily existence. Obama’s health care act now mandates that religious schools and hospitals provide and pay for services that many of us find offensive and contrary to our teachings and religious beliefs. President Obama has in fact shown a total lack of regard for the millions of devout Hispanics.
Many of us are immigrants from countries where such a thing as religious freedom is not a given. When we’ve come here we have done so with the hope and the promise of this great republic’s never ending promise of religious tolerance. But no more, we are beginning to realize just how intolerant this administration is as we see the president run roughshod over our religious liberties and disregard conscious in his mandate.
As president Mitt Romney will restore our faith in the promise of this nation’s heretofore- unwavering religious tolerance. Mr. Romney recently told the Los Angeles Times: "I don't think we've seen in the history of this country the kind of attack on religious conscience, religious freedom, religious tolerance that we've seen under Barack Obama.” We need Mitt Romney
Obama will continue to disregard the over one quarter million Latino babies we lose to abortion every year in this country. Pro-life President Romney will fight to protect our community’s youngest members. We need Mitt Romney.
The oppressive regulatory weight of ObamaCare will come down hardest on Latinos placing our most vulnerable at even greater risk. Pro-life President Romney will restore value to the lives of our elderly and infirm by eliminating bureaucratic health panels, which threaten Latino health and that is why we need Mitt Romney.
With this endorsement, National Right to Life provides us with a clear vision and choice for the upcoming presidential election. We can continue with the disastrous status quo by voting for pro-abortion President Obama, or we can stand for life and vote for Mitt Romney. We know that when presented with the bloody facts, Hispanics will vote as if life depended on it, because quite frankly – it does.