Roundup: Can We Just Have Healthcare Already?

by Robin Marty, RH Reality Check

March 4, 2010 - 12:04pm (Print)

Like the kid in the back seat on a road trip yelling "Are we there yet?" healthcare reform may be right around the corner. Or so we keep hearing. Over and over again.

But we must be getting close. After all, Family Research Council is already sending out press releases opposing it.

"No one who claims to be remotely pro-life can vote for this legislation. This legislation would be the greatest expansion of abortion we have ever seen in this country, all paid for and subsidized by the American taxpayer. While perhaps well intentioned the President today has taken full ownership of health care legislation that would lead to more death than the current system that he condemns."

More death than the current system he condemns? Remember, for the anti-choice, every fetus and embryo has a greater weight than actual people born, sick and struggling.

NARAL, although not entirely happy with the language of the bill, is willing to recognize the good it could bring as well.

Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, released a statement decrying the provisions in the health care bills that restrict abortion coverage but praising the bills overall.

"The Stupak and Nelson measures are outrageous, but the health-reform bills do have many positive provisions," she said. "They will significantly improve women’s access to other reproductive-health services, including family planning and prenatal care."

NARAL says it is continuing to lobby members of Congress to drop their insistence on keeping the abortion language in the bill. Yet it's unlikely the language could change in the reconciliation process, since it can only be used for provisions that impact the federal budget.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said yesterday that abortion was not a central issue in the Democrats' plans.

This "is not an abortion bill," she said. "It is a bill about affordable health care for all Americans."

It may not be an "abortion bill," but someone apparently forgot to tell Rep. Bart Stupak (D - MI) that. Once again we learn that when dealing with anti-choice, they have very little ability to compromise.

A dozen House of Representatives Democrats opposed to abortion are willing to kill President Barack Obama's healthcare reform plan unless it satisfies their demand for language barring the procedure, Representative Bart Stupak said on Thursday.

"Yes. We're prepared to take responsibility," Stupak said on ABC's "Good Morning America" when asked if he and his 11 Democratic allies were willing to accept the consequences for bringing down healthcare reform over abortion.

"Let's face it. I want to see healthcare. But we're not going to bypass the principles of belief that we feel strongly about," he said.

By the end of the debate, there is a strong possibility that the U.S. will be leading the world in one model of healthcare, at least, according to Wendy Chavkin, a professor at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health:

Chavkin says that in countries with single-payer healthcare systems, abortions are always included in government-provided insurance plans.

"It's considered healthcare," she said, adding that the United States is the only country she can think of in which a healthcare procedure is excluded from coverage based on philosophical or religious disagreement rather than a shortage of personnel or resources.

"It's unusual to single out a service and not fund it," she says. "There are some places where the resources are limited and they debate whether or not to fund procedures because they're so expensive. But it is a lengthy, deliberative and science-based process."

Mini Roundup: In the Philippines, Catholic Bishops ask condom ads be banned to protect the "moral fiber" of youth, meanwhile, Notre Dame refuses to publish an anti-homosexual column by a professor emeritus.

March 3, 2010

Florida Lawmakers Deal with a Mixed Bag of Bills - CitizenLink

Eliminating abortion coverage for Kalamazoo County employees – WWMT

Battle Rages Over Ultrasound Bill – KTUL

Pro-Abortion, Pro-Life Groups Take Opposite Sides on Senate Health Care Bill - LifeNews.com

Bishops seek ban on condom ads but distributor remains unfazed - GMA news.tv

Notre Dame Campus Newspaper Refuses To Publish Dr. Rice's Biweekly Column ... – Pewsitter

THIS JUST IN: Family Planning Services discontinued - Galena Gazette

From Town Halls To Twitter: The Long, Rocky Road To Destigmatizing Abortion – Newsweek

Pharmacists Take On Greater Role - 980 CJME News Talk Radio

March 4, 2010