The Red Queen of Abortion Rights - Kathleen Sibelius

It's Good to Be Queen

Plenty of Hill leaders are trying to put their stamp on the U.S. health care system, but none will matter as much as the woman in charge of implementing this reform: Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. While the media is focused on the Nancy Pelosis and Bart Stupaks, the full force of the bill will rest squarely on the HHS boss, who is as liberal--if not more so--than the current Congress. When and if the legislation passes, Secretary Sebelius will have almost unilateral control over one-sixth of the American economy.
The Senate version of health care reform, H.R. 3590, grants an unprecedented amount of power to the HHS chief, who, prior to taking her place in the President's Cabinet, served as the most pro-abortion governor in U.S history. According to the National Center for Policy Analysis, there are 1,697 instances in the bill "where the Secretary of Health and Human Services [has] the authority to create, determine, or define things in the bill." Sebelius would be the sole authority on everything from setting monthly costs per person to establishing an agency that would determine cuts without congressional approval. She would even make the final decisions about including abortion in the government-run plan.
That' s an awful lot of responsibility for a leader who has proven to be largely ineffective during the health care debate and maintained close ties to an abortion industry that helped finance most of her political career. If Sebelius is behind the wheel of a $2.5 trillion health care overhaul, you can bet she'll be receiving a lot more notes like this one. Earlier this month, the HHS boss got a letter from Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards, thanking her for speaking to a gathering of leaders in the abortion industry. "Planned Parenthood is honored to have you as an ally," it reads. At the bottom, Ms. Richards adds a personal P.S., gushing her gratitude "for [Sebelius's] friendship and support." I shudder to think about the kind of "support" Sebelius could offer to Richards if HHS is entrusted with reinventing the entire health care system in the image of the abortion industry.