Abortion and health care: summing up today's news

President Obama signed health care reform into law today, but the ire over abortion access is percolating. In a last-minute compromise with a small group of anti-choice lawmakers, including Representative Bart Stupak, Obama promised to maintain the Hyde Amendment, which bars federal monies from going to abortion. According to the Daily Beast, "we should all understand that the bill was passed at the expense of poor women's reproductive rights."

In addition to outlawing federal dollars for abortion, "the bill tries to maintain a strict separation between taxpayer funds and private premiums that would pay for abortion coverage," the Washington Post explains. "No health plan would be required to offer coverage for the procedure. In plans that do cover abortion, beneficiaries would have to pay for it separately, and those funds would have to be kept in a separate account from taxpayer money."

But the logistics of separate abortion accounts may prove too unwieldy for insurance companies. According to Jezebel, "a spokesperson for insurance company WellPoint called the process of segregating funds 'nightmarish,' and said there would be no market for policies with abortion coverage. And a letter from nonprofit insurance company Affinity Health Plan stated that the costs of keeping the money separate would dwarf any revenue companies made from covering abortion." Which means that many companies will opt not to cover abortion at all.

Shockingly, many anti-choice groups are as disgusted by the bill as pro-choice groups since they had hoped for stronger restrictions on abortion. Disgruntlement on both sides, writes Politico, could signal a new, nasty era in the abortion debate (as if it's not nasty enough already). "Both abortion-rights and anti-abortion groups say the experience of health care reform has served as a reminder of the stark consequences of elections — and of the need to elect reliable allies who will work hard to advance and defend their agendas."

We'll let RH Reality Check have the last word: "Reproductive health should not be a political bargaining chip." -TLF