Posted on: Friday, February 1,2002
Bush extends federal benefits to unborn
| • | State hospitals requiring OK for minor's abortion |
By Laura Meckler
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration gave abortion opponents a victory on a question that has long divided America — when does life begin? — while insisting that its true interest was something far less contentious: the importance of prenatal care.
On Thursday, the administration said it will make embryos and developing fetuses eligible for a government health care program, saying they qualify from the moment of conception.
It was another effort at burnishing President Bush's anti-abortion credentials while being mindful that moderate voters would be troubled by extreme positions.
But administration officials maintained that the decision had nothing to do with abortion or establishing the rights of a fetus. It was simply the fastest way to get more low-income women eligible for subsidized prenatal care, they said.
"All we're doing is providing care for poor mothers so their children are going to be born healthy," Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said. "How anybody can now turn this into a pro-choice or pro-life argument, I can't understand it."
That's precisely what advocates on both sides of the abortion issue did, branding the decision a victory for the anti-abortion movement.
"This will strengthen the right-to-life philosophy," said Lou Sheldon, chairman of the Traditional Values Coalition, who was attending the Conservative Political Action Conference where Thompson announced the plan. "It is significant when a multibillion-dollar department takes this position."
Abortion rights supporters said the change could help lay legal groundwork establishing the rights of a fetus and lead to a reversal of the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion.
"It undermines the whole premise of Roe v. Wade by giving legal status to a fetus from the moment of conception," said Marcia Greenberger of the National Women's Law Center.
The administration shot back, accusing detractors of being against prenatal care.
"Why shouldn't a low income pregnant woman have access to prenatal care? That's what this program does," said Kevin Keane, HHS spokesman.
Politically, the key for the Bush administration was to sending anti-abortion forces the message that it was bolstering the rights of the unborn while convincing others that "it's purely about the mother and about the child," said Maury Giles, a Republican pollster and consultant based in Salt Lake City who also works on children's health issues.
"It's a brilliant political positioning," said Giles.
Since his campaign for president, Bush has made it clear that he opposes abortion rights, while trying to avoid extreme positions.
Last week, he telephoned encouragement to anti-abortion marchers on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. "Our nation should set a great goal — that unborn children should be welcomed in life and protected in law," he told them.
Still, he stopped short overtly calling for reversal of the landmark Supreme Court case.
Last summer, Bush severely limited federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, which many abortion opponents object to because embryos must be destroyed. But he didn't ban the research altogether.
In other cases, he's sided clearly with abortion opponents. He cut funding for international organizations that perform abortions. He has called for bans on human cloning, on public funding of abortion and the late-term procedure that opponents call partial-birth abortion.
On Thursday, the administration said states may offer pregnant women prenatal care through the State Children's Health Insurance Program.
Because CHIP is aimed at kids, it does not typically cover parents or pregnant women, and the administration said this was the easiest way to extend coverage.
States already may cover pregnant women under their CHIP programs, though they need to get a waiver from the federal government. At least two states — New Jersey and Rhode Island — have such waivers.
Thompson promotes the waivers as an excellent way of expanding health coverage to people without insurance, and he says he has shortened the time it takes for his department to approve state applications.
Still, automatically including the fetus for coverage is even faster, Keane said.
But several abortion rights supporters compared it to legislation supported by the White House that would make it a federal crime to harm a fetus during an assault on its mother.
"There's a pattern here to establish fetal personhood," said Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women. "At the point you establish a fetus is a person under the law, then even first trimester abortion becomes murder, and the Bush administration knows that."
