Privatize Abortion Funding to Save Health Care Reform

Independent fund could finance procedures, diffuse criticisms of govt. plan
By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 13, 2009 6:04 PM CDT
Privatize Abortion Funding to Save Health Care Reform
In this June 6, 2009, file photo, protesters demonstrate during the funeral of slain abortion provider Dr. George Tiller at College Hill United Methodist Church in Wichita, Kan.   (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)

Abortion threatens to derail the push for health care reform, as opponents use the prospect of subsidized procedures to turn pro-life Americans against the whole plan, writes Meredith Simmons for Slate. Progressives are indignant—abortion is a health procedure, they argue, and should be covered like any other. But excluding abortions may be the only way to make any reform politically palatable. Privatizing abortion funding could give both sides what they want.

Simmons proposes establishing a private fund to cover abortions for low-income women, at a projected cost of $311 million a year. That funding already exists in a sense—$250 million of the $1 billion given to pro-choice charities in 2007 was earmarked specifically for abortion procedures. Only a slight reallocation would be needed to "cover abortions for every poor woman in the United States."
(More poverty line stories.)

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