Pro-lifers received good news Thursday (Jan. 31) when the Bush Administration said a developing fetus may be classified as an “unborn child” who is eligible for government health care.
The effect of the announcement will be to give low-income women access to prenatal care. A fetus will qualify for the care under the State Children's Health Insurance Program. It is aimed at kids, so it typically does not cover parents or pregnant women. But Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said the care a person receives in the womb can play a role in the individual's life-long health.
“We should do everything we can to make this care available for all pregnant women,” Thompson said.
States will now have the option of including unborn children in their programs. If they do, that would make the mother eligible for prenatal and delivery care. Pro-abortion activists say this is a way to establish a fetus as a person with legal standing — a move that could make it easier to outlaw abortion.
Pro-Life Reactions
Michael Schwartz with Concerned Women for America says his organization is pleased with the plan and pledges its support to see the new regulation implemented. But he also recognizes not every one is pleased by the development.
“No one could possibly object to making children eligible for participation in the program before as well as after birth — unless he had some ulterior reason for denying the humanity of these children,” Schwartz says. “Common sense tells us that children's health begins with good prenatal care.”
Likewise, National Right to Life's legislative director, Douglas Johnson, thinks only the “most extreme pro-abortion ideologues” will object to the proposal. And Ed Szymkowiak of the American Life League says the announcement highlights the schizophrenic nature of the country, because an “unborn child” is eligible for health insurance — but a fetus can be aborted. He told CNSNews that he hopes the rule will lead to a “slippery slope” and the ridding of legal abortion in the United States.
More Good News – Abstinence Gets a Boost
Pro-lifers received some more good news yesterday at the Conservative Political Action Conference in the nation's capital. During a speech delivered at the conference, HHS Secretary Thompson announced the President was keeping a campaign promise in requesting a funding boost for abstinence education.
Thompson said the President's new budget commits $135 million to teen abstinence education — a $33-million increase over 2002. He said the Bush Administration has finally brought equity to abstinence education and teen family planning. According to Thompson, the budget proposal further demonstrates the Bush commitment to pro-life.
But there is growing concern among some pro-lifers that Bush's commitment to their cause may not be as solid as they think. Howard Phillips of the Conservative Caucus Foundation says he is losing trust in the Republican Party's pro-life stance.
“Very often, our leaders are not telling us the truth when they say 'We can't do anything until we have a Republican president, a Republican House, a Republican Senate.' They had all three early in 2001, and yet nothing was done even about partial-birth abortion.”
Phillips says Bush could do more if he really wanted to. “The fact of the matter is the President can do a great deal. He can defund pro-abortion organizations. The President can acknowledge the personhood of the unborn child. The President can enforce the constitutional requirement that no person may be deprived of life without due process of law.”
Phillips is convinced Congress could also take action to help the pro-life cause if it would only do so. Until some kind of action is taken, he and many other pro-lifers will remain skeptical about the commitment of the GOP to pro-life.
AgapePress writers Sherrie Black, Jody Brown, and Bill Fancher contributed to this story.
(This article courtesy of Agape Press.)
