Obama crosses Pelosi on contraception spending

By Drew Zahn
© 2009 WorldNetDaily


Shortly after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tried to defend family planning services as beneficial to the economy, President Obama has appealed to Democrats to strike $200 million in funding for contraceptives from his proposed $825 billion economic stimulus package.
"While [Obama] agrees that greater access to family planning is good policy," said White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, "the president believes that the funding for it does not belong in the economic recovery and reinvestment plan."
If the funding added by congressional Democrats last week and targeted through Medicaid to help organizations like Planned Parenthood provide contraception remains in the stimulus package, Republicans warn of a backlash.
"Regardless of where anyone stands on taxpayer funding for contraceptives and the abortion industry," House Republican Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, told LifeSiteNews, "there is no doubt that this once little-known provision in the congressional Democrats' spending plan has nothing to do with stimulating the economy and creating more American jobs."
Instead, Boehner argued, the congressional Democrats were trying "to force taxpayers to subsidize contraception and the abortion industry."
Boehner continued, "How you can spend hundreds of millions of dollars on contraceptives – how does that stimulate the economy? You can go through a whole host of issues that have nothing to do with growing jobs in America and helping people keep their jobs."  (Full story at WorldNetDaily)