Thursday, September 10, 2009

Will Obamacare fund abortions?

Also from the president's speech: "And one more misunderstanding I want to clear up – under our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions, and federal conscience laws will remain in place."

First, there is no "our plan." Whenever he's challenged on a specific provision in one of the plans being considered in Congress, Obama punts, hiding behind the fact that there is no plan, just a lot of ideas that are being discussed. He can't have it both ways. If he's going to claim ownership of "our plan" when he champions one element of it, he can't then distance himself from an another element by claiming there is no plan.

Second, I read somewhere yesterday (can't find the link) that existing laws which prevent federal funding of abortion will not apply to the new bill. I don't grasp the complexities, but apparently the proposals being considered are written in such a way as to generate a new and different revenue stream that is exempt from current restrictions.

Underscoring this point is the fact that amendments have been introduced to explicitly state that abortions will not be funded under the new bill. These amendments have been defeated along party lines. (Similar amendments explicitly stating that health care will not be provided to illegal immigrants were also defeated along party lines.) Proponents of "our plan" lack credibility on this point.

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