You must read the Hot News Today about Abortion debate shifts to health insurance article if you are willing to gain your knowledge with health insurance. This articles already published by SourceMedia Group journalists Rod Boshart, James Lynch, Rick Smith, Mark Geary, Dave Franzman, Jami Brinton, Gregg Hennigan which covered Eastern Iowa Government.
House Republicans expanded the Legislature’s abortion debate into health-insurance coverage Monday, saying that benefit plans certified in Iowa as part of an exchange created by federal health-care reform could not offer coverage for abortions
Rep. Dawn Pettengill, R-Mount Auburn, said House Study Bill 57 was a precautionary measure if federal reform moves forward to make certain that persons who want to purchase coverage for abortion procedures would have to do so separately and not part of a state health-benefit exchange.
“The harder it is to get, the less likely they are to have (an abortion),” said Pettengill before a subcommittee moved the measure to the House Commerce Committee for further consideration.
Opponents said the issue already is covered under the recently enacted federal law and it appeared the House bill was designed to prohibit the coverage altogether.
Kyle Carlson of Planned Parenthood of the Heartland noted that 80 percent of health-insurance policies nationally cover abortion procedures and she questioned where a woman could purchase supplemental coverage if such insurance is not offered through the exchange, noting that “a woman doesn’t plan to have an abortion any more than she plans to have a stroke.”
Tom Chapman of the Iowa Catholic Conference spoke in support of finding a way to provide everyone insurance coverage but not use taxpayer money to fund abortions. The conference supported federal health-care reform but the House measure was a needed addition to make sure the exchange the state does not subsidize plans that cover abortions.
Backers said the bill should not be construed as creating or recognizing a right to an abortion or making lawful an abortion that is prohibited. While the subcommittee debated the health-care legislation, Sen. Jack Hatch, D-Des Moines, and Chuck Hurley, president of the Iowa Family Policy Center, squared off during an Iowa Public Radio appearance on two other House bills dealing with abortion – House File 5, which would ban nearly all abortions in Iowa after the 20th week of pregnancy except in cases where the mother’s life is at risk, and House File 153, which would define life as beginning at conception.
Hurley said majority House Republicans probably are going to have to opt for House File 5 because it appears to have the best chance for passage and would head off plans by a Nebraska doctor to establish a clinic in Council Bluffs to perform late-term abortions even though there is strong support to address the 94 percent of Iowa abortions that terminate pregnancies in the first 13 weeks of gestation.
“There is a sense of desperation.
When you can’t pass a law that is plain as the nose on your face to protect innocent human life, then there’s a great sense of loss, tragedy for those lives. Do you try to save the lives you can? Probably yes,” Hurley said. “With a weeping heart, yes, not with a chest-thumping triumph because what we’ve done if we can’t protect all innocent human life is we have consigned 94 percent of innocent human beings to a painful death, or if not painful, to a wicked, a tortuous death tearing them apart limb by limb.”
Hatch expressed concern that this year’s abortion debate is “a pretty radical departure” from Iowa’s legislative past and appears to be driven by politics rather than health-care concerns, especially in medical situations where a mother’s life is in danger.
“The Republican Party has really swung to the far extreme position,” said Hatch, who noted that Democrats who control the Iowa Senate have been hesitant to take up any abortion-related bills because they want to see what direction the debate goes in the House.
Comments: (515) 243-7220; rod.boshart@sourcemedia.net
source:http://www.easterniowagovernment.com/2011/02/21/abortion-debate-shifts-to-health-insurance/
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