The health care reform bill that the U.S. House of Representatives passed on Saturday acts to restrict women's access to abortion. An amendment tacked onto the bill at the last minute will prevent women who receive a health care tax credit from purchasing an insurance plan that covers abortion. Ironically, a bill meant to expand Americans' access to health care is restricting a procedure that women have a Constitutional right to access. Anti-abortion advocates cannot justly use the health care reform bill as a means to limit access to a legal medical procedure. As President Obama said yesterday in an interview with ABC, "This is a health care bill, not an abortion bill."
Under the proposed health care reform, people would purchase insurance from one of several competing private insurers and possibly from a "public option." The federal government would provide subsidies to those who cannot afford to purchase insurance on their own. The abortion amendment, known as the Stupak amendment, states, "No funds authorized under this Act … may be used to pay for any abortion or to cover any part of the costs of any health plan that includes coverage of abortion," unless the procedure is being used in situations of rape, incest or to save the mother's life. No one who receives any level of federal subsidy to pay for her insurance will be able to choose a plan that covers elective abortion, and the public option will not provide coverage for abortion. Women will have the option to abstain from using federal money and buy a plan that does cover elective abortions. But this is not an avenue that is open to the most financially needy, whom health care reform is targeting. Furthermore, abortion is not something most women plan on needing, so making them choose whether to spend more on a plan that offers abortion is inherently unfair.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi put the Stupak amendment up for a vote in order to garner support for the bill from moderate and conservative Democrats. The amendment also benefited from strong support from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, a lobbying group in favor of improved access to health care but strongly opposed to abortion rights. If members of the House or outside parties wish to change the laws about access to abortion in this country, they should follow the proper legislative process necessary to overturn the right to abortion established in Roe v. Wade. The health care reform bill is not the place for anti-abortion legislators and lobbying groups to launch an insurgent attack on abortion access. A woman's right to an elective medical abortion is Constitutionally protected, and most Americans consistently voice support for it. The government's health care plan ought not to force access to abortion out of reach for low- and middle-income women who cannot afford health insurance on their own.
Health care reform is intended to extend medical insurance to those who are currently unable to afford it, not to make normative judgments about who should receive which procedures. The Stupak amendment to the House's bill jeopardizes the integrity and purpose of legislation meant to improve Americans' access to medical care.
