Why the Healthcare Bill Will Include Taxpayer-Funded Abortions - HUMAN EVENTS

Why the Healthcare Bill Will Include Taxpayer-Funded Abortions - HUMAN EVENTS: "--Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) commenting on Nancy Pelosi’s reaction to his amendment that would prohibit taxpayer-funded abortion in healthcare reform.

The healthcare bills working their way through Congress should be opposed, and for so many reasons. They would ration care, expand entitlements, make all Americans dependent on government-approved insurance plans and add to our already stifling national debt. The bill passed by the House is horrendous. Whatever emerges from the Senate and later from the congressional conference committee should be opposed full stop."

That said, there is an interesting debate taking place among congressional Democrats about whether to include an amendment to prohibit taxpayer funding of abortion. At the conclusion of that debate, Democrats will face a revealing choice: between achieving their most sought after legislative goal and appeasing their pro-abortion fringe.

Put simply, the life and death of the healthcare bill may rest, literally, on life and death.

The Stupak-Pitts amendment to the House health care reform bill bans individuals from using new government subsidies to buy insurance plans that cover abortion, and prohibits a government-run plan from carrying abortion coverage, except in cases of rape, incest or when a mother’s life is endangered. The Stupak amendment is essentially an extension of the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits most federal tax dollars from funding abortions in Medicaid.