HealthcareHorserace.com has been closely following a behind-the-scenes battle over the inclusion of an undeclared abortion mandate in healthcare reform bills proposed in the House and Senate. With the House bill stalled in the Energy and Commerce Committee and multiple amendments aimed at denying federal funding for abortions failing in the Senate last week, pro-life advocates believe that now is the time to go public and make their voices heard on the issue.
“Momentum is picking up. 20 pro-life Democrats have a sent a letter to Pelosi saying they will not support a healthcare bill that includes taxpayer-funded abortion in it and this past weekend the Congressional Budget Office director said that mandating abortion coverage and tax-payer funding cannot be ruled out yet.” (David Beriet of 40 Days for Life, as told to Life News.)
Pro-lifers are organizing a Thursday (July 23) webcast featuring some heavy hitters in the abortion debate - led by Focus on the Family’s James Dobson, Governor Mike Huckabee and Kristen Day of Democrats for Life. Organizers expect as many as 100,000 to sign on to the Stop the Abortion Mandate seminar and learn more about what they can do to support efforts in Congress to add amendments denying public funding for abortions to the healthcare reform bills currently circulating on Capitol Hill.
Attempting to diffuse the situation, five House Democrats - led by Congressman Tim Ryan - proposed a solution to Speaker Nancy Pelosi yesterday afternoon.
[W]e believe that a common ground solution is to include language in the final legislation that makes clear that no insurance company will be required to pay for an abortion except in extraordinary circumstances — nor will they be prohibited from paying for an abortion, so long as health insurance plans offered in the exchange that choose to provide abortion coverage pay for those services with funds that are separate and distinct from any federal subsidies.
This solution maintains the current status quo in the private market – where insurance companies can choose whether to include this coverage in their plans and individuals can choose which plan (and what sort of coverage) fits their individual needs and values while ensuring that no federal funds are used to pay for abortions.
The Ryan proposal comes a month after he and 19 other House Democrats sent a letter to Speaker Pelosi last month expressing their concern over federal funding for abortions and threatening to vote against any House reform bill that does not include explicit language assuring that federal funds will not be used to pay for abortions.
The pressure may already be paying off as Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus appears to have gotten the message.
“Health care reform is not about that issue at all,” Baucus, D-Mont., said Tuesday. He said the Senate plan would be “neutral — status quo.” (Associated Press)
For his part, President Obama also seems resigned to the status quo a little more than a week removed from an audience with the Pope in the Vatican during which he promised to work to reduce the number of abortions in America.
What I think is important, at this stage, is not trying to micromanage what benefits are covered. Because I think we’re still trying to get a framework. And my main focus is making sure that people have the options of high quality care at the lowest possible price.
As you know, I’m pro choice. But I think we also have a tradition of, in this town, historically, of not financing abortions as part of government funded health care. Rather than wade into that issue at this point, I think that it’s appropriate for us to figure out how to just deliver on the cost savings, and not get distracted by the abortion debate at this station. (President Barack Obama during an interview with CBS News’ Katie Couric.)
The status quo referred to by Baucus and Obama is the 33-year-old Hyde Amendment which forbids Medicaid (and by precedent the federal government) from paying for abortions with federal money. All but 17 states have since followed suit and banned the use of state funds for abortion procedures with 13 of those requiring a court order to do so.
