From the ABC News report on President Barack Obama’s interview with Jake Tapper:
In an exclusive television interview in the Map Room of the White House, Obama told ABC News’ Jake Tapper that he was confident that the final legislation will ensure that “neither side feels that it’s being betrayed.”
“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.
And how does he propose to satisfy two polar opposites? It can’t be done. But Obama is a master at appearing to take both sides into careful consideration — “There are strong feelings on both sides … 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” — just before favouring one side over the other. The problem is that comprehensive health care reform changes the status quo on everything. There is only one solution was pointed out by Phillip Klein in The American Spectator yesterday:
If pro-choice Democrats are sincerely concerned about avoiding government restrictions on abortion coverage in private insurance policies, there’s a very simple solution: don’t support a government takeover of the health care system.
In his interview Obama said:
“I laid out a very simple principle, which is this is a health care bill, not an abortion bill. 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.”
All he needs to do then, is vow to keep the Stupak-Pitts amendment in place. To fight for it. Insist that Congressional leaders do not take it out of the final bill inconference. House Democrats are vowing to remove the pro-life language at their first opportunity; Obama should publicly challenge them to maintain the prohibition on direct or indirect abortion funding.
But Obama also insists that the status quo that private insurance plan that currently funds abortion not be allowed to continue funding abortion, even though private insurance will be affected by health care reform that will subsidize supposedly private coverage. Therefore, federal monies will be subsidizing, albeit indirectly, abortion.
Again comprehensive health care reform alters everything. I would suggest the Democratic leadership, including Obama, know that. Abortion funding is not a bug, but a feature of state-run health care.
