Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) characterized the GOP’s recent legislative effort to restrict access to abortion and contraception as “the most comprehensive and radical assault on women’s health in our life time,” on a conference call with reporters and bloggers this afternoon and promised to wage a campaign against the effort. Pelosi was referring to the Republican-backed H.R. 3 “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act” and H.R. 358, “Protect Life Act,” as well separate measures to eliminate federal funding for family planning.

“They’re proposing raising taxes on small business,” Pelosi said, of the two bills. “Under current law, women can buy insurance that covers a full range of reproductive health care. Under the Republican plan, women in private plans can’t use their private money to purchase a full range of reproductive health care, effectively taking away the right of women to spend their own money on the health care they choose.” “Small businesses that received tax credits for their employees will lose their tax credit if they choose a full range of plans that cover women’s health,” Pelosi added.

H.R. 3 would eliminate any tax breaks for health care plans that include abortion coverage, denying tax credits to employers or other entities that pay for health plans that cover abortion, while H.R. 358 would also prohibit federal funding for abortions under the Affordable Care Act and “prevent funding from being withheld from institutions that refuse to provide abortions.”

Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO), who joined Pelosi on the call, warned that the GOP proposals went beyond restricting abortion, and would also limit access to family planning services. Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) has said that he plans to offer a proposal to strip funding from Planned Parenthood, which provides contraceptives and family planning services, and House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY) yesterday released a plan that would eliminate Title X funding. “This is a very, very, real threat,” DeGettte warned. “The first vote could come as early as next week and we’re expecting a vote within the next few weeks or months.”

“Heck, out of all the things you can say about their approach, that they don’t even have funding for family planning and contraception is something that we’ve never been able to convince the public of but it is true and it has always been their agenda,” Pelosi added, before saying that Democrats will work to pressure moderate pro-life Republicans on the spot to push them to vote against cutting off funds to family planning services.

While some would expect abortion opponents to support family planning programs that reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies, Pelosi argued that conservative Republicans are “in a different philosophical place on…all engagements that result in a child. So that’s why homosexuality, that’s why birth control, all these things that are not consistent with their beliefs that are all about procreation.”

Yesterday, in an effort to make good on their election promise to significantly reduce federal spending, Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee released a preliminary plan of specific cuts that would result in a “9% reduction in nondefense, discretionary spending from 2010.” The proposal makes significant reductions to health care programs, including $1 billion from the national institutes of health, $327 million from Title X, and $210 million from Maternal and Child Health Block Grants.

Surprisingly, Republicans would also eliminate $1.3 billion from community health centers — which provide much needed care to rural and undeserved communities. The programs were expanded by former President George W. Bush (and Obama) and have previously been described as “essential” by Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY). In fact, his website is littered with press releases touting new federal funds for CHCs in his district:

– U.S. Congressman Hal Rogers (KY-05) announced today that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has awarded $100,000 to Grace Community Health Center….”"Grace Community Health Center serves those who are most in need and will use this funding to help improve the quality of life for those with little to no access to health care. This investment in Clay and Knox counties improves the well-being and health of the local community.” [State News Service, 9/17/2010]

– U.S. Congressman Harold “Hal” Rogers (KY-05) announced today that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has awarded Morehead State University (MSU) with a $235,620 Rural Health Care Grant…“This is great news for the people of Martin County,” said Rogers. “By providing new resources to focus on preventative health care, the community will now be better equipped to address the health care problems that have plagued our region for far too long.” [Press Release, 10/17/2009]

– U.S. Congressman Harold “Hal” Rogers announced today that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has awarded Health Help, Inc. with a $1,433,244 Rural Health Care Grant…”This Rural Health Care Grant program ensures medical care is available to seniors, children, and low-income families,” said Rogers. “In these challenging economic times, rural health care clinics are now more than ever an essential part of the health care safety net in our region and this investment in Jackson County will aid in continuing these important services.” [Press Release, 5/18/2009]

“If this cut were to be approved, it would mean that America’s health centers will lose the capacity to serve 11 million patients over the next year, with well over 3.3 million current patients losing their care within the next few months,” Tom Van Coverden, president and CEO of the National Association of Community Health Centers, said in a statement.“That is equivalent to terminating all healthcare to the entire population of Chicago, or to everyone living in the states of Wyoming, Vermont, North and South Dakota, and Alaska combined,” Van Coverden said.

Indeed, this kind of disinvestment could also translate to serious job losses on the local level. Economists estimated that the additional $2 billion investment in CHCs from the stimulus package generated $3.2 billion of economic activity in 2009, with health centers creating approximately $20 billion in economic activity for the communities where they are located.” Health centers directly employ people in their communities, including key entry-level jobs, training, and other community-based opportunities. The clinics also purchase goods and services from local businesses and expand and build new locations. That’s why members of both parties embrace these centers and will have a hard time in actually voting for their elimination.

After describing the Senate’s reconciliation process as a “parliamentary trick” in a September 2009 WSJ editorial and criticizing Democrats for seeking to pass health reform with just 51 votes, Karl Rove has a new WSJ piece advising Republicans in the Senate to repeal the Affordable Care Act with a simple majority. Democrats deployed the technique last year to pass part of the ACA, and were harshly criticized by Republicans for skirting the traditions of the Senate and ramming through reform that would effect 1/6th of the American economy. During the bipartisan health care reform summit at the White House in February of 2010, Republicans pressed President Obama to abandon the effort:

SEN. LAMAR ALEXANDER (R-TN): “Renounce this idea of going back to the Congress of jamming through on a partisan vote through a little used process we call reconciliation, your version of the bill. … It has never been used for something like this. It is not appropriate to use to write the rules for 17 percent of the economy.”

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL: (R-KY): “We know from a USA Today/Gallup Poll out this morning, they’re opposed to using the reconciliation device, the short-circuit approach that Lamar referred to that would end up with only bipartisan opposition by 52-39.”

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ): “If a 51-vote reconciliation is enacted on 1/6 of our gross national product, never before has there been, there have been reconciliation, but not at the level of an issue of this magnitude. I think it could harm the future of our country and of our institution, which I love a great deal.

Watch it:

Republican attempts to use reconciliation will likely fail, since Republicans were unable to muster 51 votes to repeal the measure in the Senate last week. The measure fell along party lines, with all 51 Democrats voting against repeal and 47 Republicans backing it.

Brian Beutler notes that Republicans wouldn’t be able to repeal the entire law through reconciliation because the rules governing reconciliation “hold that any legislation that avoids the filibuster must directly effect revenues and spending, and must lower the deficit.” “To use it honestly, Republicans would have to exempt some of the good stuff — the pre-existing conditions discrimination ban would still exist — but mostly they’d have to repeal spending measures: the politically popular stuff.”