Harold's Left:
This is the quote by Obama in 2007 pro-life groups are using as rationale to assert that the President is committed to finding a way to include abortion in the health care reform bill; "Reproductive care is essential care, basic care so it is at the heart of the plan that I propose ... insurers are going to have to abide by the same rules in terms of providing comprehensive care, including reproductive care ... that’s going to be absolutely vital." Their logic is silly. Clearly. There's little doubt that Obama is talking about the sort of pre-natal care that is essential to improving infant mortality rates and birth defects. Yet, some on the Right are still convinced that there is some maniacal plot by the Democratic members of Congress to include abortion in health insurance coverage. And they are not done yet.
There is a small movement by some, one that will likely gain very little traction, to insure that birth control pills are also excluded from coverage. I'm going to leave my reasons and argument for why I am pro-choice for another day, but this is just taking it too far. It just goes to show that the Right is never satisfied and will oppose this bill regardless of what's in it. To assert that it is "tyranny" to be forced by a liberal administration to pay for policies they don't personally support is ridiculous when the only tyranny is taking away people's choice to use birth control.
The other point, and perhaps a more important one, is that just because people disagree with a political position, does not mean that their taxes do not have to pay for that position. To be more clear; many on the right are crying because they don't want their tax dollars to go to abortion. Will abortion even be in the bill? Not directly. Although the current House bill does not specifically mention abortion, under the current wording abortions may be included when it's all said an done. Implicit in losing an election is paying taxes for policies you may not support. For the billionth time -- it's called losing. We payed billions (700 billion to be exact) for an Iraq War that many of us opposed. Does that mean we don't pay taxes? No, it means that we mobilize to elect officials who will oppose that initiative and end it. I fought in the Iraq War while not believing in it's premise, and never once did I refuse to do anything I was charged to do under my duty to the military. It's called the democratic process.
Unfortunately, I do not think the charge that abortions are somehow underhandedly part of health care reform legislation will go away. Even if a bill passes with no explicit on implicit mention of abortion, the right-wing will just do what they always do; create lies to assert that it does. They've done it with death panels and euthanasia, with rationing of care, and with care to illegal immigration. Moreover, they will continue to use their most famous hypocritical argument: That when progressives propose legislation that involves taxing citizens, it is tyranny. Yet, when conservatives propose and implement preemptive wars or biased faith-based initiatives, if you are against them you are 'anti-American'. It's only communism when we do it. It's only out of control government takeovers when we do it. It's a only a forceful power grab when we do what voters sent our officials to Washington to do. The misinformation campaign of the right-wing continues...
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They are also quite alright with the idea of using school vouchers paid for by tax money to fund private schools; religious schools which would have no direct responsibility to the first amendment's establishment clause. And expect me to pay for it.
September 14, 2009 6:03 AM