Sebelius: No Public Abortion Funding In Health Care Bill

McClatchy:

WASHINGTON -- Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius pledged Sunday that President Barack Obama will support barring public funding for abortion in any health care overhaul legislation.

Read the whole story: McClatchy

Comments

[wagadog]

Um.

According to MY irrational belief system, Flying Spaghetti Monster objects to his likeness being served as dinner in American Hospitals.

Health Care Dietary Reform Now!

[wagadog]

Well a public option is likely to eliminate the abortions that women have when they don't have adequate medical insurance.

Think about it: they can get up the five hundred bucks that an abortion would cost, but not the five grand a (basic) birth would cost, or the fifty grand a complicated (premature, breach, C section, etc) birth can cost.

Even if you COULD find five grand that you didn't need for, say, college or paying the rent for six months, or tiding you over after being fired for the crime of being pregnant -- there's no guarantee that it's not going to be a complicated birth and put you fifty or a hundred grand in the hole anyway. Now you're unemployed, bankrupted and you have a child, possibly profoundly retarded or with spina bifida or other birth defects, to raise for the next 20 years. Sounds like fun, huh?

There's a reason why "pro-choice" winds up meaning "pro-abortion." In a country where most of the young *women* do not have health care if they get pregnant (good luck keeping that job after asking for maternity leave -- oh and there goes your health coverage with it!) abortion becomes the only realistic choice they have.

Some choice.

[FabulousAt52]

I wonder what 'they' will do if "abortion" is not covered under any federally funded or supported health care plan.... and then they see a very significant rise in .... "D & C procedures"?
You watch, that will be next; women (and their doctors) will have to "prove" procedures like D & Cs are truly necessary and not "an abortion in disguise...."
And then what about sterilization? That's a reproductive choice that is also frowned upon by most religious faiths....will that not be covered too? Where will it stop?

[Aspohn87]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUPMjC9mq5Y&hd=1

This is true video journalism from the 9.12 protests. It's funny and scary, but most certainly important. So share this video with people.

Let's get this circulating to the mainstream.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUPMjC9mq5Y&hd=1

[Bronxdude]

When it comes to guaranteeing health insurance for its citizens, among industrialized powers, WHO ranks Spain 7th and America 37th; in Spain, access to affordable healthcare is a Constitutional right, not a privilege reserved for the rich; conversely, more people die waiting for care in America than in Spain, Canada, Great Britain and France combined—so much for the republican lie about reform spawning rationed healthcare. In the current debate, republicans have not raised fact-based questions about what’s in proposed reform legislation; instead, they’ve relied on scare tactics instigated by paid lobbyist to propagate salacious lies about reform. Working-class republicans: Trust your instinct to think! Don’t confuse liking your doctor with liking the morally corrupt insurance company robbing you blind. Despite the absurdity of the lies being spread by Coburn, Kyle, Grassley and other self-serving republicans, 55 percent of registered republicans willingly reject the truth and embrace the lie that health insurance reform will cover illegal aliens, while another 56 percent accept the ludicrous notion of death panels. Despite the Hyde Amendment, which bars taxpayer money for abortions, in their fact-impaired universe, a whopping 58 percent of registered republicans believe that heath insurance reform will pay for abortions. Incredibly, 79 percent of Fox viewers believe that Medicare is not socialized medicine, while 73 percent believe that government sponsored death panels are a reality. The new republican paradigm: professed Christians lying like degenerate sociopaths. Public option now!

[Elbrando]

Actually, health insurance reform could be used to fund abortions. If people buy private insurance than some of the private insurance companies will pay for abortions. It is only if people have the public option that federal money cannot be used to pay for selective abortions according to the Hyde Amendment.
The irony being that a public option would in this case be more likely to hinder abortions than sticking with private insurance.

[mikefina]

According to table attached, the aggregate population of Spain, Canada, Great Britain and France is approx. 70% of US population. It doesn't tell us anything to say that

>> "more people die waiting for care in America than in.....combined"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population

Don't want to pick nits, but you get the point...

As for funding for abortions--money is fungible, especially if folks are disposed by personal conviction to be lax in their accounting for it. It is no wonder then, that people who oppose public funding of abortion would try and close the loophole.

[MsMandy]

As far as I am concerned, abortions, like any other medical procedure, should be something decided on by a woman and her doctor, not the insurance companies or the government. Insurance would pay for the birth, right?
Despite what many in this country would like to dispute, abortion is a legal procedure.

[jws2346]

Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is not high on my trust list

[rcozad]

So, in other words, the GOVERNMENT will get between you and your doctor! If we start down this road next will be the Democrats caving in to other lunatic fringes that have religious opposition to organ transplants, birth control, etc. etc. Abortion is a LEGAL procedure, and ought to be covered like any other. Will they oppose vasectomies, why are we always the DUMB country that would rather people die rather than reduce the bonuses insurance executives receive for restricting our coverage!? As any Canadian will tell you yes they have people that have to wait for non-emergency surgery, but the US has people waiting their entire life and never getting it!!

[FabulousAt52]

Gee, I wonder if this new health care plan will cover MEN'S reproductive health; you know male enhancement drugs and performance drugs like the "little blue Pill" -- so 70 year old geezers can still impress the (35 yr old) ladies...
Will it cover Vasectomies? I bet men will continue to get ALL their reproductive health care needs taken care of just fine....

Seems to be the WOMEN in this country that must scrape and fight for every inch of reproductive freedom and personal control over their reproductive life! If Obama caves on this one... I'm taking to the streets!

[chris stl]

This Sebelius gal is very lame ... wish we had a stronger HHS at this time ,,,

[FabulousAt52]

There will be hell to pay..... if this administration allows **Religious Dogma** to dictate how and what "national health care coverage for all" means!!
I don't give a good goddamn if SOME people think a legal medical procedure is a SIN.... They do not have the right to impose their archaic, superstitious, oppressive religious beliefs on the rest of us!
Hell to pay.....

[DontFeedTheBeast]

such as...

[FirstShirt]

I agree and now we need to define the death penalty as late term abortion.

[wagadog]

awesome.

Also, if life begins at conception, then shouldn't all children conceived on American Soil (including Guam, Midway, Puerto Rico...) by honeymooners on vacation have the same right to American Citizenship that children born on American Soil (tm) have?

Shoot, what if you were a foreign national working in an American embassy or consulate abroad, and got preggers due to a bonk in the washroom.

Conceived in America, must be an American Citizen. hahahahahah!

[roger3815]

There should be funding for it. I'd rather pay for an abortion than 18 years of foster care.

[bynddrvn5]

Say what?!!!

This is absurd, for a free country - the USA isn't feeling so free anymore. Well unless you want to sell worthless crap, and then you have almost NO restrictions.

[ginxy]

That's just great. I wonder what other legal medical procedure will be banned next?

Fail.

[BPCentrisAmerican]

It never was, if Republicans took the time to read the bills, instead of thowing rocks at them, they might learn something, than again.