There are many issues swirling around the health-care debate, any one of which could sink PelosiCare. It costs too much. It slashes Medicare. It will drive private insurers out of the market. Raising taxes in a recession will smother the recovery. But none is more potentially divisive on the Democratic side of the aisle than abortion. The Washington Post reports that some 40 Democrats are not yet sold, because PelosiCare threatens to undermine the ban on federal funding of abortions that’s been in place for more than 30 years:

The abortion dispute centers both on federal subsidies that would be provided for people who cannot afford health-care coverage themselves and the much-debated government insurance alternative, which is included in the House version of the bill but is still being debated in the Senate. Under a 1976 law, federal funds are generally barred from being used for abortions, except in cases of rape or incest or to ensure the life of the mother.

Democratic leaders early this summer backed a provision that would allow people to use subsidies under the bill to buy insurance plans that cover abortion, but only funds from individual or employer health-care premiums could go toward paying for an abortion. Effectively, insurance companies would be tasked with segregating money from government payments from those coming from private sources, and only the latter could be used for abortion.

It seems that Democrats like Rep. Bart Stupak, as well as Republicans, don’t buy the accounting gimmick. “They say the federal subsidies and the private payments are combined for a person to buy a health plan; therefore, federal dollars are helping fund insurance plans that allow abortions.” Seems like they have a valid point.

The Democrats have tried a fair amount of flimflam in the health-care debate. Taxes are not taxes. Bills with unsustainable cuts are “budget neutral.” But accounting is one thing. For activists on both sides of the issue, the issue of taxpayer-funded abortions is not likely to be disguised in a fog of rhetoric or an accounting sleight of hand. It is an either/or — are taxpayers going to pay the bill for abortion services, which haven’t been publicly funded for 30 years, or not? There’s no hiding the ball on this one.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 at 8:16 AM and is filed under Contentions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.