Opinion: New Health Care Reform Bill and Abortion Amendment

Abortion is not an easy decision for any woman. If she chooses this option, it may haunt her for the rest of her life. In the future, this difficult choice could also be a very expensive one or a cheap one, done in a back alley. The House passed H.R. 3962 bill, the Affordable Health Care for America Act, along with an abortion amendment. The amendment restricting abortion coverage follows federal standards for Medicaid but its impact will be far greater. The new health care reform bill is 1990 pages in a .pdf document. Happy reading, ha!

Federal standards for Medicaid: Currently, 32 states, plus Washington, D.C., follow federal standard (funding only cases involving life endangerment, rape and incest) for Medicaid. Seventeen states fund all or most medically necessary abortions, exceeding federal requirements, as of November 1, 2009. These numbers will surely change if the abortion amendment is included in the final bill.

The amendment restrictions: Abortions (excluding those involving life endangerment, rape, and/or incest) will not be covered under federally-funded insurance plans. Private insurance companies that receive federal money will also not be allowed to cover abortions. Those offering abortion services would not be allowed to receive Federal funding.

The new health care reform bill abortion amendment is preposterous. Anti-abortionists in the Senate are using healthcare reform to further their agenda and adding to the red tape wrapped around this bill. Regardless of your opinion on abortion, America is supposed to be land of the free. Our liberties continue to be crudely taken from us. Where do we draw the line? People complain that they don't want to pay for women's abortions and some in government want to ban the practice. In 20 years, perhaps government will decide we need to implement population control and begin forcing abortions, paid for by your tax dollars.

Anti-abortionists would like to see abortions black-marketed, which could put women at risk. What will happen in situations where tests come back showing the child will have serious birth defects? Nowadays, the woman has the right to choose aborting the pregnancy in this instance. Why bother doing birth defect tests if abortions will not be covered for this type of situation?

In conclusion, the amendment restricting abortion coverage would affect those covered federally and privately. The new healthcare bill is comparable to day care subsidy. You pay a portion and the government helps with the rest of the bill. Most Americans would be covered federally and privately, and insurance companies are going to gear coverage toward this subsidized market. Those offering abortion services cannot receive Federal funding. The bill is now in the hands of the Senate. If passed, the House and Senate bills will need to be combined together and voted on once again. I hope something happens to get the abortion amendment removed from the health care reform bill.

Sources:

http://www.statehealthfacts.org/comparetable.jsp?ind=458&cat=10

http://docs.house.gov/rules/health/111_ahcaa.pdf