Now that Barack Obama has decided to push for a hyper-partisan
healthcare bill, the issue of taxpayer-funded abortions is
front-and-center. The current proposals would lead to this
taxpayer mandate, and could even drive conscientiously objecting
doctors out of medicine.
The New York Times wrongly reported
that Mr. Obama has decided to go it alone with Democrats in
Congress, passing a bill without Republican support. That's
untrue. The decision they're making is to pass a bill without any
moderate Democrats -- in other words, a bill of the Far Left.
The liberal officials and activists comprising the Far Left make
perfectly clear that their highest social priority is abortion.
More than same-sex marriage or gun control, abortion is their
defining social issue. So legislation for Obamacare written
exclusively by liberal Democrats will protect their agenda.
That means one thing: Obamacare will mandate taxpayer-funded
abortions.
Ever since 1976, the Hyde Amendment has prevented most federal
taxpayer dollars from funding abortions in America. The late
pro-life stalwart, Congressman Henry Hyde, inserted the amendment
(that must be renewed each time) into the law funding Medicaid to
prevent taxpayer money from paying for Medicaid recipients'
abortions.
But the Obamacare proposals being debated would change that in
one of two ways. First, if the legislation does not expressly
refuse funding for abortion, then under normal rules of statutory
interpretation it would be presumed that funds could be used for
that purpose.
Second, Obamacare would eventually lead to abortion funding, even
if it excluded it for several years. Once Obamacare is in place,
it would fund healthcare at prices below what private insurers
could offer. The government's deficit each year would be paid by
tax revenues. Insurance companies would either lose business
because they were more expensive, or they would go into the red
if they tried to compete at the same price. Either way, private
insurers would go bankrupt, and everyone will be on the
government plan.
Once the government plan was the sole source of money to
healthcare providers, government protocols as to what conditions
providers must meet to be eligible to receive federal money would
directly dictate treatment decisions. (Obamacare could even exert
that influence beforehand, because at some point it will be the
single largest payer for every provider, money the provider
couldn't do without.)
This danger goes beyond forfeiting reimbursement for individual
treatments. The federal government will have criteria that a
provider must satisfy to be eligible for federal funds. The
government would make abiding by its treatment protocols a
condition to remain eligible. These protocols would include who
gets what treatment, in what order patients are treated (this is
government rationing), and providing abortions on demand.
Violating these protocols would make that provider ineligible for
funds.
Once Obamacare becomes the sole source of funds, becoming
ineligible means going bankrupt. Distressed over losing their
entire careers and aware of how their closure would cause more
deaths and suffering by leaving people without care, most
providers would rather cave on this narrow issue than close shop.
Talking heads on the Far Left openly say that they believe it's
okay for the government to yank someone's medical license for
refusing to perform abortions. Some, such as Alan Colmes on Fox
News, said that this amounts to denying needed care to a person
that the person is entitled to, and that it's not wrong for a
provider refusing to perform abortions to be shut down.
The reason they're so militant on this issue is because the Far
Left believes that taxpayer-funded abortions are a constitutional
right. Everyone's heard of Roe v. Wade. Fewer have heard
of Harris v. McRae, where the Court held in 1980 that
the right to an abortion does not include the right to force
taxpayers to fund that abortion.
Most people don't appreciate how close the Supreme Court is to
simply declaring a right to taxpayer-funded abortions. Harris
v. McRae was a 5-4 decision; four liberal justices wrote
that everyone has such a right.
The current Supreme Court is likely only a single vote from
overturning this decision, and declaring taxpayer funding to be
commanded by the Constitution. Barack Obama may yet have the
chance to change that balance on the Court.
So both legislatively and judicially, taxpayer-funded abortions
teeters on a knife's edge. Doctors' rights of conscience, whether
religious or otherwise, are in critical danger, and Americans
should rally to doctors' sides to stop this outrageous aspect of
Obamacare from becoming law.
topics:
Health Care, Abortion
