Groups urge GOP to maintain front against Sebelius

The strong showing of Republican opposition to Health and Human Services Secretary-designate Kathleen Sebelius in committee Tuesday heartened anti-abortion-rights activists — but they are not yet satisfied.

All but two Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee voted against recommending the confirmation of Kansas Gov. Sebelius (D), a tally that stood in marked contrast to the friendly reception she received at hearings earlier this month before the panel and the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee.

{mosads}Anti-abortion-rights groups credit their grassroots efforts during the recent congressional recess with the turnaround by Republican senators. They also do not plan to let up now that the Finance Committee has cleared the way for Sebelius to come up for a confirmation vote by the full Senate. They intend to demand that the GOP make it difficult for Democratic leadership to move swiftly.

These activists concede that Sebelius is still likely to be confirmed. The Finance Committee voted 15-8 in her favor (including proxy votes). Republican Sens. Olympia Snowe (Maine) and Pat Roberts (Kan.) voted with the Democrats. In addition, Kansas Republican Sen. Sam Brownback, a prominent abortion-rights foe, has endorsed her.

A Democratic leadership aide said the Senate would not vote on Sebelius any sooner than next Wednesday and all Democrats are expected to support her. Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) said Tuesday, “I expect that the vote in the committee will be generally be reflective of where a lot of people will be on the floor.”

Nevertheless, anti-abortion-rights activists maintain senators who oppose abortion rights have an obligation to make their objections heard even if they lose the fight in the end.

“Every day they delay, more opposition is building to her,” said Carrie Gordon Earll, the senior director of issue analysis for government and public policy at Focus on the Family. “It may not be enough to derail the nomination, but it certainly will send the message that this will not just sail through.”

Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America (CWA), said senators should “delve deeper” into the nominee’s record before voting to confirm her. “To jam this nominee through is more than a disservice to Americans,” she said.

On Wednesday, a coalition of prominent conservative and anti-abortion-rights organizations circulated a letter to senators urging them to reject Sebelius.

“Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’s lack of integrity during the nomination process, together with her extreme pro-abortion record clearly demonstrate that she is unfit to serve as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services,” reads the letter, signed by Wright, Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser, Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins and other conservative leaders.

Kate Bedingfield, a White House spokeswoman assigned to assist Sebelius during the confirmation process, said the governor has a “mainstream” view of abortion rights that is reflected by her repeated reelection to office in Kansas.

“Gov. Sebelius has been reelected in the state of Kansas eight times since 1986, so clearly her stance on the issue has not been a problem in a very conservative state,” the spokeswoman said.

During the recess, grassroots organizing groups such as CWA, the Susan B. Anthony List and the Family Research Council mounted campaigns that generated thousands of e-mails and telephone calls to senators in opposition to Sebelius. Anti-abortion-rights groups were peeved that Republican senators did not make more noise about Sebelius’s abortion record.

“Eight Republicans voting against her is clear change. I don’t think the vote would’ve been so prior to the recess,” Earll said.

After the hearings, Sebelius and the White House inadvertently made the abortion groups’ job easier and gave wavering Republicans additional ammunition to oppose her confirmation. Sebelius submitted answers to a written question from Kyl, in which she grossly understated the amount of campaign cash she had received in Kansas from a controversial late-term abortion doctor named George Tiller.

She subsequently corrected the error, but the mistake gave her opponents more fodder on an already difficult issue challenging her rapid confirmation, particularly when that was combined with her earlier revelation that she had paid more than $7,000 in back taxes while being vetted for the Cabinet.

Initially, Sebelius told the Finance Committee that Tiller had contributed $12,450 to her campaigns and political action committees (PACs) from 1994 to 2001. After The Associated Press reported that the figure was higher, Sebelius acknowledged that Tiller, his wife and his business contributed $39,500 between 1990 and 2002 to her or PACs affiliated with her.

“I regret that there was an inadvertent omission in my previous response to this question. The oversight led to an incomplete listing of certain PAC contributions as well as contributions from Dr. Tiller’s business,” Sebelius wrote to the committee.

Abortion is not the only issue provoking opposition from Republicans. Speaking before the committee vote Tuesday, Kyl cited Sebelius’s response to a question about whether the federal government would use so-called comparative effectiveness research on medical treatments to refuse to cover costlier procedures. “Unfortunately, she left me with no assurance that [the Department of Health and Human Services] … will not use comparative effectiveness research as a tool to deny care,” Kyl said.

In addition, Republicans and anti-abortion-rights groups are using the Sebelius nomination as an opportunity to protest the Obama administration’s plans to roll back Bush-era “conscience” regulations that strengthened the rights of medical providers to refuse to participate in procedures they morally oppose, including abortion and dispensing the morning-after pill.