House Leaders Tout Historic Vote on Health Care, CNN Covers Abortion Issue

Just watched CNN coverage of the House Democratic leadership announcing that they expect passage of historic legislation on health care, probably today. I have to say, the coverage on CNN's website is pretty sad -- no comprehensive story, just a focus on the abortion issue and how it's dividing Democrats through an amendment that is being brought to the floor of the House. The good thing about the story is that it provides a link to the House bill, also here. After looking through the bill and certain sections in depth, it doesn't appear to contain many surprises. The bill is exactly what the House Democrats have been talking about -- new regulations governing health insurers (requiring coverage of pre-existing conditions, for example, and ending protections from anti-trust law), an individual mandate to ensure that every American gets coverage, public subsidies to help people afford that coverage, a public option to help control costs, and a new tax on the wealthiest Americans to pay for the plan.

The abortion issue shouldn't derail this important legislation, in my opinion. I have looked through the bill, and it does contain provisions ensuring that state laws governing abortion will not be affected by the new Federal law (section 258, p. 147) and protecting doctors who don't want to perform abortions from discrimination -- labeled "rights of conscience" (section 259, p. 148). These protections ought to be enough to satisfy abortion opponents, but some of them want to outlaw government financing of abortion through the bill. I think the bill as currently written is abortion-neutral. If the amendment passes, it would make the bill more restrictive than current law, which could lead to court challenges and the like. I really am against abortion -- I think it's a horrible thing to do to a developing child and to the mother of that child -- but I don't think government financing of abortion is the main issue we ought to be considering. We ought to be considering what's right in the debate for our fellow citizens without insurance and for the country as a whole. That's why I was disappointed that CNN focused on the conflict.