Today's valuable Sowal lesson: pay cash for an abortion!
It's not a perfect comparison by any means, I didn't come up with it, but it is food for thought at least for me. First of all, science is a methodology, and religion is an ideology. Science is morally neutral and deals with observable facts. One could certainly use the results of a scientific discovery to perpetrate evil motivated by his ideology. And yes, people of faith do good things in the name of their religion. However, when a group of people band together and do something totally irrational and evil be it an act of terrorism or a soccer riot, some sort of fundementalist belief is at work. Often it has a religious basis.
What apparently is tucked into the Stupak amendment, and is the big bone of contention, is this bit that requires that any insurance company that participates in the exchange has to offer the same policies in the exchange as it does in the open market to prevent insurers from offering substandard policies to the poor while extending better policies to those who are better off. So, assuming a big chunk of the insurance market action will be on the exchange, every insurer will want to participate, meaning they they would have to get rid of abortion coverage in all their policies that they offer.
The Stupak amendment wasn't just to make sure that the Hyde Amendment stood-- which prohibits federal funding of abortions and has been around since the 70's. This was to prevent insurance companies from providing abortion coverage PERIOD in either a policy or a rider.
So, it was no surprise that the US Conference of Catholic Bishops supported and lobbied for the Stupak Amendment. It doesn't make them any different than any other pro-life group with the exception of making a statement to all women that regardless of your religious beliefs, it doesn't matter, and that our way is the right way. Is that the message the Catholic Church wants to espouse?
I believe that is incorrect. The amendment allows for abortion riders on exchange plans. I have to assume it doesn't prevent the same on non-exchange plans.
Yes, I was right -
Wonk Room ? Why The Stupak Amendment Is A Monumental Setback For Abortion Access
Yes, it looks all proper on the exterior. The amendment does state that a separate rider can be purchased, however, the amendment contradicts other parts of the Health care Bill, one being discrimination. The bill would require “guaranteed issue.” This means that any insurer offering coverage to individuals on the health insurance exchange must accept all customers.
If the insurance companies offering plans on the exchange are not allowed to turn down any customers, it means no basic insurance plan on the exchange could cover abortion. There would be no way to prevent that at least one of the plan’s customer would be using affordability tax credits to help purchase the plan. So the effect is no plan sold on the exchange or the open market could/would offer abortion coverage as part of its basic package.
Today's valuable Sowal lesson: pay cash for an abortion!
Some of the later term medically-necessary life-saving abortions are very expensive.