FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact:
Dorothy Yeung
Chair, Triangle Right to Life
(919)-257-9916

FALSE INFORMATION ON TAXPAYER FUNDED ABORTION DISTRIBUTED TO DURHAM CITIZENS AT

PRICE TOWN HALL MEETING

Durham, N.C. (August 14, 2009) - On Thursday, August 13^th, 2009, over 850 Durham citizens gathered in North Carolina Central University's B.N. Duke Auditorium to discuss the proposed health care bill with their Congressman, Representative David Price. The meeting was sponsored by the State Employees Association of North Carolina.

The issue of whether or not tax-payer dollars would be used to publicly fund abortion did not surface once among the panel comprised exclusively of health care reform proponents. Oddly, the State Employees Association of North Carolina, the sponsor of the meeting, deemed the highly charged topic of taxpayer funded abortion worthy of merely a blurb at the bottom of a handout that was distributed to attendees. According to the handout, "There is no part of the House or Senate health care reform bills that mandate abortion coverage in the Exchange."

However, National Right to Life's Douglas Johnson explained why this claim is dead wrong. "H.R. 3200 would drastically change longstanding federal policy," said Johnson. "The bill creates a nationwide insurance plan run by the federal government, and the language explicitly authorizes this plan to cover all abortions. If this passes, the federal government would be running a nationwide abortion plan. Abortionists would send bills to the federal insurance plan and receive payment checks from the federal Treasury. It is a fiction, a sham, and a political ploy to pretend that this scheme does not constitute federal subsidies for abortion," Johnson stated.

Barbara Holt, President of North Carolina Right to Life, urged North Carolinians to oppose the bill. "Senator Kennedy's health care bill and the House Democratic Leadership health care bill, H.R. 3200, would result in coverage of elective abortion in a new nationwide ‘public option' health insurance plan, and would allow federal subsidies to go to other plans that also cover elective abortions. North Carolina Right to Life strongly urges North Carolinians to oppose any health care bill unless abortion is explicitly excluded," Holt said.

Several Durham citizens, including Triangle Right to Life Chair Dorothy Yeung, attempted to ask Rep. Price about the false information contained in the handout, as well as his July 24^th vote to use taxpayer dollars to fund abortion, but were prohibited from do so since so few questions were allowed, most of the meeting time was used by the panelists to show their support of the bill, and Price abruptly left the stage within thirty seconds of the last question. At this time, Price has scheduled no town hall meetings for the entire August recess.

ABOUT TRIANGLE RIGHT TO LIFE:

Triangle Right to Life is the Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill area Chapter of North Carolina Right to Life, a state affiliate of the National Right to Life Committee. The mission of Triangle Right to Life is to protect innocent human life, from conception to natural death from abortion, embryonic stem cell research, human cloning, infanticide, and euthanasia/assisted suicide. We support adult stem cell research, adoption, and other positive measures that uphold and protect innocent human life.

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