Abortion, the Health Care Bill, and the Medical Industry

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Medical Industry Pleads, "Please don't throw me in that briar patch! (DUFF WILSON and REED ABELSON, 11/09/09, NY Times)

[A]s attention now shifts to the Senate, where Democratic leaders are trying to merge two bills into one, virtually every business group with a stake in the outcome will be hoping to strike at least a slightly better deal than they found in the House version.

And they may indeed get a break from the Senate, where the need for Democrats to compromise to win 60 votes may ensure a more business-moderate outcome.

And yet, many analysts said on Sunday that even the House bill was not as bad for business as many in the health care industry might have feared when the overhaul effort began many months ago.

“All industries stand to gain from this legislation,” Steven D. Findlay, senior health policy analyst with Consumers Union in Washington, said in an interview. “They’re going to continue to fight their narrow issues and get the best that they can get. But all of them are aware they stand to gain significant new business and new revenue streams as more Americans get health coverage and money flows into the system for them.”

Feigning political fury for political ends: ... (William Saletan, Nov. 9, 2009, Slate)

To get the bill through, Pelosi traded away abortion.

Naral Pro-Choice America is furious. It points out that more than 85 percent of private health insurance plans cover abortion. By forbidding such plans from competing in the new, lucrative federally-supervised insurance exchanges, the bill would force them to drop abortion coverage. This would eliminate such coverage even for policyholders who pay their own way—"a radical departure from the status quo," the group complains.

The Planned Parenthood Federation of America seems even angrier. On Saturday, it announced its opposition to the House bill. According to PPFA President Cecile Richards, the bill strips women of abortion coverage even "in the private health insurance market" and leaves them "worse off after health care reform than they are today, violating President Obama's promise to the American people that no one would be forced to lose her or his present coverage under health reform."

Welcome to socialism.

Does anybody really, truly believe that the Democrats intend to leave that language in the final version of the bill, the one that crosses the President's desk? I don't believe it. And I don't think NARAL and Planned Parenthood think so, either.

In fact, I figured at the time that many of those voting in favor of the amendment had their fingers crossed and have every intention that the final version of the bill will include taxpayer funding for killing unborn children. One of them even says so right out (not the child-killing part, he doesn't call it that, and he perserves the fiction that the Hyde ammendment will somehow prevent federal funding of abortions):

House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said he believes that the amendment restricting federal funding for abortion will eventually be removed during conference with the Senate's bill.
[...]
Clyburn said that he and many other House Democrats supported the amendment to pass the legislation in the House, with the expectation that it would eventually be removed.

"That's certainly why I voted for it," Clyburn explained. "I agree that the language approved by the House is unacceptable. We were doing what was necessary to do to put the bill on the floor in about 12 hours."

In the 1940's Robert Heinlein was using this sort of political theater in one of his books, where a novice in politics is stunned to see a politician talking passionately about a bill condemning and banning something that the entire economy relies upon, the entire body politic passes his bill unanimously. A politically experienced friend kindly explains that explains that the sponsor needs to introduce the bill to appeal to his own consituents, and everybody's agreed to let him do that, but they all know the bill is now going to the committee where it will die a quite and ignominious death.

Indeed, they are all, including the sponsor, relying upon that bill dieing a quiet and ignominious death.

How sincere is Planned Parenthood's anger and outrage over this?



Trust Pelosi, says Planned Parenthood's chief. She's a very smart woman and she got the Health Care Bill passed. She is totally confident there will be an acceptable 'compromise' when the bill goes into reconciliation.

Note as well Chris Matthews demonstrating yet again his awesome powers of neutrality (saying in effect, 'this is a bad thing and it needs to be fixed').

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