How Abortions Can Be Covered In Healthcare Bill
TIME Says Current Bill Provides for All Abortions
Aug 26, 2009
Time Magazine and Factcheck.org have analyzed the healthcare reform bill and offered their findings. According to Time Magazine, President Obama is seen as either not understanding the healthcare reform bill, or misleading the American people.
Exactly What President Obama Has Said
President Obama has diligently fended off attacks on healthcare reform, including those from his own side, refuting what he calls the "myths" and "fabrications" of healthcare reform. The current bill holds no language specifying that abortions will be government-funded. “There are some folks out there who are frankly bearing false witness…you’ve heard that this is all going to mean government funding of abortion. Not true,” said President Obama.
In remarks to pro-choice Planned Parenthood during the campaign, President Obama previously said, “In my mind reproductive care is essential care, it is basic care and so it is at the center and at the heart of the plan that I propose.”
Healthcare Isn’t Healthcare Without Abortion
Dr. Charmaine Yoest of Americans United for Life argues, “For the left, for the abortion lobby, healthcare isn’t healthcare unless it includes abortion.”
According to CBN News, pro-life members of congress tried to add “language” to the bill clarifying that abortions will not be covered and failed. Instead, language was added by a pro-choice Democrat, called the Capps Amendment, further complicating the debate, say some. Pro-choice moderates call the amendment “a compromise."
“There is very clearly a deliberate campaign out there to obscure the truth and to make it confusing,” said Dr. Charmaine Yoest on CBN News.
Rachel Laser of Third Way said, “You’ll see language which specifically leaves in place all federal protections on abortion and that truly is abortion-neutral.” Third Way bills itself a “leading think tank of the moderate wing of the progressive movement.”
Abortion Could Threaten the Healthcare Reform Bill
Time Magazine reports that healthcare reform as proposed by House Democrats, would, in fact, mark a significant change in the Federal Government's role in the financing of abortions. "It would be a dramatic shift," says Representative Bart Stupak, a Michigan Democrat who has vowed to oppose the bill because of how it would affect abortion. Stupak says dozens of House Democrats may join him in opposing a final health-care compromise unless the abortion language is changed, presenting a clear challenge to Democratic vote counters that could imperil a party-line vote. According to supporter Elizabeth Shipp of NARAL Pro-Choice America, the bill "could only use private funds to pay for abortion services."
Private Funding From Public Funds
Critics of the healthcare reform bill say that the bill has an accounting loophole which will allow funding for abortions with non-government money from premiums paid into the public option by individuals or employers. In addition, the Capps Amendment would also provide government money to help low-moderate income earners to buy coverage from private insurance plans which include abortions.
Member dues or premiums paying for expanded abortion coverage would be kept separate from tax dollars via separate internal accounts. Legislation would require those enrolling in the public option to contribute to the account for abortion coverage, so anyone wishing to use the public option would pay for abortions. The Obama Administration would have to decide that abortion is a basic medical service, which it is expected to do.
Stupak explains that President Obama's statements during recent public events signal one of two things: either he does not fully understand the current House bill, which Stupak maintains has the effect of publicly funding abortion, or "if he is aware of it, and he is making these statements, then he is misleading people.”
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