Hailed as the biggest expansion in abortion since the 1973 landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision, thousands of pro-lifers began mobilizing last month against President Obama’s proposed bill to reform the American health-care industry, called America’s Affordable Health Choices Act.

In a nationwide webcast on July 23, over 35,000 participants listened while 20 speakers, including various pro-life group leaders and members of Congress, sounded the alarm for urgent action against the health-care proposal.

David Bereit, national director of 40 Days for Life and webcast moderator, reported the webcast as the largest online pro-life event in history.

“We are gathered in a critical time in America.?We are at a time when polls are documenting that 71 percent of Americans are opposed to taxpayer-funded abortion,” Bereit told listeners, referring to a recent Zogby poll. “But in the midst of all these circumstances right now ? a crisis has arisen. Washington bureaucrats and powerful abortion lobbyists are working right now to hijack and exploit the current heath-care reform debate in an attempt to impose their radical abortion agenda on you and me?people of faith and conscience.”

Bereit said the current proposals being considered in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate “would result in the biggest expansion of abortion” since Roe v. Wade.

“These proposals would mandate taxpayer funding on abortion and mandate you and virtually every other American be forced into a health plan with mandatory abortion coverage,” he said.

James Dobson, founder and chairman emeritusof Focus on the Family, labeled the legislation “a freight train” that must be stopped.

“?It would require that health-care providers who are opposed to abortion violate their own conscience and perform abortions at the risk of losing their own jobs,” said Dobson in a pre-recorded message.

Noting that the bill does not specifically contain the word “abortion,” many webcast presenters decried the bill’s use of deceptive language.

Charmaine Yoest, president and CEO of Americans United for Life, charged the bill was a move by the Obama administration to invoke the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) by stealth.

“The ultimate objective of the abortion lobby is to elevate abortion to the status of a fundamental right at the same level as the freedom of speech and freedom of religion,” Yoest said.

Despite Roe v. Wade, Yoest explained that Americans still have the ability to regulate or restrict abortion, leaving the door open to reverse the court decision through legislation.

“The abortion lobby wanted to use FOCA to shut down that path and put abortion beyond the reach of the American people. Then the pro-life community mobilized, and they haven’t even been able to introduce FOCA in this Congress. Now they are turning to health-care to impose FOCA by stealth”

-Charmaine Yoest, president and CEO of Americans United for Life

“The abortion lobby wanted to use FOCA to shut down that path and put abortion beyond the reach of the American people. Then the pro-life community mobilized, and they haven’t even been able to introduce FOCA in this Congress. Now they are turning to health-care to impose FOCA by stealth,” Yoest ex