Abortion and Health Care Reform

Will health care reform force you to pay for abortion? That is a question Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council is asking. He is not the only one who is asking what health care reform might mean to the average American.

Lately President Obama has been trying to reassure Americans that government involvement in health insurance will not radically alter our health care system. While in Green Bay, Wisconsin the president claimed that socialized medicine is not his goal.

He said: “Socialized medicine would mean that the government would basically run all of health care. They would hire the doctors, they would run the hospitals. They would just run the whole thing. Great Britain has a system of socialized medicine. Nobody is talking about doing that, all right?”

You have to wonder if the president is trying to make a distinction that really isn’t much of a difference. In single-payer health care, the government reimburses both public and private sector health care providers. While there may not be complete state control of health care, the government will have to have control of health care expenses. So while it may be true that the goal of Congress and this administration is not promoting socialized medicine, it is also true that government officials will have to make choices about what is and isn’t covered by the government option of insurance.

That brings us back to my opening question. What will the government fund and what will government refuse to fund? The argument could easily be made that since abortion is legal in this country, the government should fund any and all of a woman’s reproductive needs (contraception, abortion, maternity, etc.). The current battle over conscience protections for doctors and other health providers suggests that provisions for abortion may indeed become part of the government option for health care, if not initially certainly down the line.

Whether abortions are funded by the government plan will be one of many battles fought as Congress considers health care reform. I’m Kerby Anderson, and that’s my point of view.