×
Jeffrey Rosen steps into the Stupak amendment fray by making an argument that the rest of his article completely undermines. All you need is the first sentence:
Is it worth sacrificing health care reform for ideological purity on abortion?As I wrote the other day, to pretend that this is a choice between "purity" and "health care reform" is to deceptive: The Stupak amendment, if it is included in the final bill, represents a choice between moving backwards on reproductive rights and health-care reform. Saying otherwise makes it easier for people who want to avoid making that hard choice feel like they are being reasonable. But as Rosen demonstrates in his piece, the amendment would set back women's access to abortion in very real ways, and it doesn't look like the courts would be able to reverse the legislation. There is one observation in the article that hadn't struck me before and is worth repeating: Religious conservatives are holding abortion funding to a much higher standard than the federal subsidies that go to religious organizations -- "Pro-life groups have resisted the segregation of public and private funds, arguing that the two are ultimately fungible. (They are less concerned about fungibility when it comes to federal grants for soup kitchens run by churches, which can then free up funds to celebrate Mass.)" This could be leverage for Democrats, who ought to propose that if Stupak stays in the bill, his funding standard should apply to religious organizations as well. Interestingly, folks on the right are convinced that this amendment won't be in the final version of health-care reform, and many are angry that anti-choice Republicans supported the amendment, giving cover to conservative Democrats who voted for the House health-care reform bill. Let's hope that this is the case -- and that pro-choice groups are working the phones and organizing to get the language back to the Hyde standard, at the very least. If not, pro-choice Democrats are going to face a very hard choice when they have the chance to vote on the final, post-conference health-care reform bill.
-- Tim Fernholz
