In a Washington Times opinion piece, Charmaine Yoest president and CEO of Americans United for Life Action states that abortion is the “epicenter” of the health care reform debate and that “no one realizes this more than the White House,” which has “insisted that the health care proposals currently under consideration would not cover abortion.”

According to Yoest, who attended a meeting on Thursday with senior White House officials, the administration officials “reiterated the presidents statement from his address before Congress and were noncommittal about specific language that would address the current concerns of the prolife community.” Despite claims by President Obama, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (DCalif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (DNev.) that the health reform proposals in Congress would not cover abortion, Yoest writes, ”Without a specific statutory amendment that includes an explicit ban on federal funding and coverage, we face health care reform that does include abortion.”

Yoest continues, “Lost in the debate over whether or not abortion” is included in health reform is “an understanding among political elites that this is a watershed battle over definition.” She says that this “comes down to a very straightforward question Is abortion health care, or is it not?” The “agenda” of the abortionrights movement is “to win by definition … equating abortion with health care at the federal level,” and “shift[ing] the entire debate,” she writes. The abortionrights movement has been “marking this turf for years with polltested messaging, describing abortion as reproductive health,” Yoest continues, adding, “Now they are reaching for their ultimate objective of removing the reproductive adjective and making it mandatory health care, plain and simple.”

Yoest writes that although AUL has supported the Hyde Amendment, the amendment “isnt the answer when the debate has shifted from Medicaid to a federal health care program.” She terms the Capps amendment included in the House Energy and Commerce Committee bill “abortion friendly” and expresses support for an amendment sponsored by Rep. Bart Stupak (DMich.) that failed in that same committee and sought to bar funding for “any part of the costs of any health plan that includes coverage of abortion,” except in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the woman. She goes on to criticize the recently released Senate Finance Committee bill, which according to Yoest “provides $6 billion for the establishment of health insurance cooperatives, which would be permitted to cover abortion. If the Hyde Amendment which is not permanent, but has to be renewed by Congress annually is ever eliminated, the Baucus bill would mandate coverage for all abortions.”

Advocates for health reform are “incapable of summoning the votes for an abortion exclusion” because they “simply cannot vote against the powerful abortion lobby,” Yoest asserts. She speculates that “without an explicit exclusion of abortion funding, the courts will define abortion as mandatory health care and impose federal funding in any kind of federal system,” adding that abortionrights opponents “understand full well that arguments to the contrary play us for fools.” The situation is “a showdown of epic proportions,” Yoest states, concluding that “this is bad ground for the abortion lobby, and the president, who promised Planned Parenthood abortion would be at the center and the heart of his health care reform” (Yoest, Washington Times, 9/18).

Reprinted with kind permission from nationalpartnership.org. You can view the entire Daily Womens Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Womens Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

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