Dana Goldstein on why reproductive rights are far from assured in the push for health care reform:
“I certainly would like to prevent, if I could legally, anybody having an abortion, a rich woman, a middle-class woman, or a poor woman. Unfortunately, the only vehicle available is the ? Medicaid bill.”
Those were the words of Illinois Sen. Henry Hyde, on the floor of Congress in 1977. Just four years earlier, Roe v. Wade had legalized abortion across the country. Almost immediately, opponents of reproductive rights began seeking out ways to limit access to the procedure.
Will current health care reform efforts mean that for the first time since Roe, federal government dollars will pay directly for abortions? It’s unlikely. But the religious right and its Republican enablers want grassroots conservatives to believe it will, hoping the resulting outcry will scuttle attempts to reform our expensive health care system and provide coverage for 47 million uninsured Americans. They are playing the abortion card.
