Anti-Abortion Leader Says White House Meeting Doesn't Ease Concerns

WASHINGTON -- The head of a national anti-abortion group said Friday her group is not standing in the way of women trying to access abortion services, but she told President Obama's senior aides that taxpayers shouldn't be footing the bill through health care reforms.

Chairmaine Yoest, the president and CEO of Americans United for Life Action (AUL), said the Thursday meeting at the White House went well, though officials were noncommittal on the issue.

"The challenge for the pro-life community is that unless he (President Obama) gets behind explicit language, it's still going to be a problem," Yoest said after the meeting. "We wanted the meeting to have a dialogue."

She told FOX News on Friday that abortion is a mandatory category of care and the courts will force abortion coverage in health care reform unless something is explicitly forbidden. She said despite claims that it's excluded in the bill, every effort to shoot it down has been prevented

"The huge question that is left in our minds is, how do you square that there isn't going to be abortion funding in the bill, and yet every single amendment that has repeatedly been offered to explicitly say abortion funding won't be in the bill has been voted down? And that just remains to be a completely irreconcilable difference," Yoest said.

Yoest said she thinks the White House still has to overcome the issue, and cited various amendments in both the House and Senate versions of the legislation which would address the matter.

"We left a legal brief with at least five or six amendments listed that have been voted down on the House side and four on the Senate side," Yoest said.

In his address to Congress last week, Obama addressed head on the controversy over abortion funding in health care reform.

"And one more misunderstanding I want to clear up," he said. "Wnder our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions, and federal conscience laws will remain in place."

But Yoest said that unless abortion coverage is explicitly excluded from any legislation, the courts will authorize the funding.

Yoest said the group would be pleased if something "like the Hyde Amendment" were introduced into the legislation. The Hyde Amendment, named for the late Illinois Republican Rep. Henry Hyde, bars the use of federal funds for abortions.

"This is an end-run around Hyde," Yoest told FOX News, pointing to language the group says is currently in some of the legislation that would not prevent administrative agencies or the courts from mandating abortion funding and coverage.

She added that an amendment by Reps. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., and Joe Pitts, R-Pa., could address the matter. That amendment calls to ban funding for any federal money to be used on abortion, even if it's paid to a private health insurance plan that covers abortions. The amendment failed in the House Energy and Commerce Committee vote, but Stupak said he will oppose the entire health care reform if it's not addressed on the floor.

Yoest met with Domestic Policy Advisor Melody Barnes, Director of Faith Based & Neighborhood Partnerships Joshua DuBois and Tina Tchen, director for public liaison.