Sarah Palin: November Elections About Fighting "Culture of Death"
At a Texas fundraiser on Tuesday, Sarah Palin urged audience members to vote in the midterm elections for candidates who would focus on overturning health care reform, citing the importance of choosing a "culture of life" over "a culture of death," according to CNN.
In a paid speech to supporters of the anti-abortion group Heroic Media, Palin called President Obama "the most pro-abortion president to ever occupy the White House" and claimed he was responsible for "the biggest advance of the abortion industry in America."
"That's why it's essential that we use the 2010 midterms to elect a Congress that will make undoing the damage of Obamacare its first priority," she said.
The former vice presidential candidate also praised Texas Governor Rick Perry for "working tirelessly to protect you all from Obamacare," according to the Houston Chronicle, and lauded the state's attorney general for joining a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the health care reform bill passed by Congress earlier this year.
"Understand that Obamcare violates a lot of things - like the commerce clause in our Constitution and the will of the people," Palin said. "And it violates our conscience when it comes to funding abortion."
Palin has suggested that the health care reform bill passed by Congress this year provides funding for abortions, a claim Democrats dispute. In a recent editorial, she claimed that "Obamacare-mandated high risk insurance pools set up in states like Pennsylvania and New Mexico will fund abortions after all."
Factcheck.org, the nonpartisan watchdog organization, took issuewith the broadness of that claim, stating that "the Department of Health and Human Services says the only abortions covered will be those in cases of rape, incest or when the mother's life is endangered."
This is not the first time Palin has spoken at an event for Heroic Media, a faith-based nonprofit organization that aims to decrease abortion numbers by paying for pro-life advertisements. The Chronicle reports that Palin was the group's keynote speaker at an Austin event last April, and will be speaking on their behalf in Dallas next month.
CNN reports that the event drew a crowd of more than 2,500 to Houston's First Baptist Church, although the Chronicle put the number at approximately 1,000.
A spokeswoman for the group would not confirm to the Chronicle how much Palin was paid for her appearance, but the former Alaska governor has been known to charge as much as $100,000 per event in the past.
Tickets were sold for $50 each.
