NEWS
State may foot bill for abortions
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by Jessi Polsky
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Anti-abortion rights groups throughout Wisconsin continue to fight against the Healthy Wisconsin Plan proposed by the Democrat-controlled Senate, claiming it would use taxpayer dollars to pay for abortions.
The current state employee health care plan — which covers employees and their dependents — has been adopted by the Healthy Wisconsin Plan, which aims to insure all Wisconsin citizens.
State employees can choose from a variety of HMO plans, all of which cover themselves as well as their dependents, and all of the available HMO plans pay for "therapeutic abortions."
Sen. Mary Lazich, R-New Berlin, said the Healthy Wisconsin Plan will use taxpayer dollars to pay for abortions.
"[A] lot of taxpayer dollars going for abortions … is not the norm," Lazich said.
People are disgruntled with soaring health care costs, Lazich added, and by paying for abortions, the state is adding to the high cost of such coverage.
A large problem with the plan, according to the anti-abortion rights group Wisconsin Right to Life, is its failure to define the term "therapeutic abortion."
"Therapeutic abortions include what [are] known as health issues," Susan Armacost, legislative director for Wisconsin Right to Life, said. "Health, according to the U.S. Supreme Court, means your psychological state, emotional state [and] age."
Armacost added the vague definition of a health issue makes it easy for virtually all women to qualify for the procedure.
State employees’ health care plans, Armacost said, have included therapeutic abortions since 1995 when Gov. Jim Doyle, then attorney general, decided the funds used for the procedures were not taxpayer dollars.
"We have a law that is supposed to prohibit funding for most abortions, but Doyle is saying that law didn’t apply when it came to state employees’ health insurance plans," Armacost said.
Like Wisconsin Right to Life, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin recognizes the term "therapeutic abortion" does not have a single definition, but defines the term as "a medically necessary abortion."
Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin also said the state employee health care plan adopted by the Healthy Wisconsin Plan follows all state and federal laws.
"Healthy Wisconsin Plan’s limited coverage of medically necessary abortions is consistent with both state and federal law," Chris Taylor and Nicole Safar, representatives for Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin, said in a release earlier this month.
According to Taylor and Safar, anti-abortion groups continue to circulate false information about the Healthy Wisconsin Plan using taxpayer dollars for abortions throughout the state.
"The Healthy Wisconsin Plan only covers medically necessary abortions — those that are necessary to safeguard a women’s life, health or her future fertility," Taylor and Safar said in the statement. "[I]f a physician finds that a woman needs an abortion … only in those very limited circumstances would the services be covered."
A final decision has yet to be made on the Healthy Wisconsin Plan, as a state budget has yet to be passed.
Anonymous (September 5, 2007 @ 11:09am):
Using taxpayer dollars to fund free abortions is an extremely divisive. It will only serve to inflame the pro-life community. It's like saying we know you think this is murder but were going to make you pay for it anyway. Abortion should not be a part of any government run health care plan.
Anonymous (September 5, 2007 @ 1:21pm):
I love how abortion lovers always demand that I keep my hands off their body, but they have no problem taking my money to pay for their "choices."
Anonymous (September 5, 2007 @ 4:36pm):
By funding abortions, the government avoids having to pay for labor and delivery for indigent women.
Net result: Government-funded abortions SAVE money. We can pay LOWER taxes because we avoid having to pay for labor and delivery for indigent women. Labor and delivery costs between ten and twenty times more than an abortion.
Right-to-lifers should be asked: How much EXTRA taxes are you willing to pay to cover the costs of labor and delivery for indigent women?
Anonymous (September 6, 2007 @ 12:16am):
The abortion procedure itself may cost only $400, but there is always a bigger price to pay. When you consider the costs for:
+post-abortion counseling
+psychiatric care
+substance abuse treatment
+repairs for perforated uterus or bowel
+hospitalizations
+treatment for incompetent cervix
+future ectopic pregnancies
+future premature delivery
+treatment for future infertility/sterility
+breast cancer
+treatment for infection or sepsis
+treatment for pelvic inflammatory disease
+treatment for menstrual problems
and any of the other known, documented, and all too common complications from the procedure, the cost of abortion goes way up.
When considering the personal/societal costs: +broken relationships
+increased child abuse
+increased domestic violence
+lost productivity, etc.
the cost of abortion becomes astronomical.
Legalizing abortion has not solved these problems as the feminists in 1960s promised they would; in fact, they have become worse.
Furthermore, the rate of breast cancer, premature births, infertility, etc. has also gone up.
Anonymous (September 8, 2007 @ 11:36pm):
Obviously, the person who supports government funded abortions values money more than human life.
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