President Obama said in an
interview with ABC's Jake Tapper that the language in the
House Democrats' health care bill that would bar taxpayer funding
for abortion should be changed:
"I laid out a very simple principle, which is this is a health
care bill, not an abortion bill," Obama said. "And we're not
looking to change what is the principle that has been in place
for a very long time, which is federal dollars are not used to
subsidize abortions.
Saying the bill cannot change the status quo, the President
said "there are strong feelings on both sides" about an
amendment passed on Saturday and added to the legislation, "and
what that tells me is that there needs to be some more work
before we get to the point where we're not changing the status
quo."
...
"I want to make sure that the provision that emerges meets that
test -- that we are not in some way sneaking in funding for
abortions, but, on the other hand, that we're not restricting
women's insurance choices," he said.
The problem, as I explored
in depth on the main site, is that the reason why the Stupak
amendment restricts women's insurance choices is that it
restricts everybody's insurance choices. The bill prevents
individuals from purchasing insurance outside of a government-run
insurance exchange and only allows them to purchase policies that
have been approved by the Health Choices Commissioner. And the
reason why existing restrictions on taxpayer funding for abortion
need to be applied to private insurance for the first time, is
that for the first time taxpayer subsidies are being used for
people to purchase private insurance.
