Symptom of the Disease: Tax dollars indirectly used for abortions

Charmaine Yoest has an interesting post about the Capps Amendment designed to set up accounting mechanisms to ensure tax dollars do not directly fund abortions. An accounting mechanism? The problem is that direct funding may be blocked, but there is no way to ensure indirect funding is not used for abortions. This is another example of a symptom of the disease.

Again, our Founding Fathers were genius. When the federal government gets involved in funding efforts they are not Constitutionally authorized to do, you run into problems. Hence, they were very specific laying out what the federal government could do.

When the government buys a car company, the new shareholders (the people) get ticked off at the high salaries and corporate jets. When government gets involved with school mandates like the creationism versus evolution, parents must fight with the federal government to change the curriculum to suit their personal beliefs.

And yes, when government tax dollars are used – directly or indirectly – to fund medical procedures like killing the unborn, you’re going to tick off half – or maybe more – of the population. Get the federal government out of health care, and the problems become more easily managed.

Head over to the Wall Street Journal and read the full post by Yoest. Hang out over there for a bit since I’m finding some worthwhile opinion pieces at the WSJ lately.

The Capps Amendment would side step the Hyde Amendment and other provisions in federal law. If it becomes law as part of health-care reform it would make abortion coverage a part of the public option, funnel tax dollars to private health plans that cover abortion, and ensure that every area of the country will have at least one health insurance plan that covers elective abortion. If this should happen, for the first time in more than 30 years the federal government would be in the business of funding the destruction of unborn human life.

The Capps Amendment sets up an accounting mechanism that is supposed to make sure that federal dollars do not directly pay for elective abortions. But this is a dodge. Federal dollars would still subsidize insurance plans that pay for abortions.

The only honest way to maintain the status quo is to add a provision modeled after the Hyde Amendment to any health-care reform that becomes law.

Why is the Capps Amendment being sold on the false premise that it would maintain the status quo? Because otherwise the American people would not go along with it.

A Rasmussen poll released last month showed that only 13% of Americans want the health-care reform bill to use tax dollars to fund abortions. A Pew Research Center poll two weeks ago showed that support for legalized abortion has dropped to its lowest level in years to 47%, down from 54% last year.

Steve McGough

Steve's a part-time conservative blogger. Steve grew up in Connecticut and has lived in Washington, D.C. and the Bahamas. He resides in Connecticut, where he’s comfortable six months of the year.

1 Comment

  1. Dimsdale on October 15, 2009 at 5:42 am

    Obama is an abortion enthusiasts.  This is no surprise.



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