Pro-life leader calls health care proposals a ‘radical departure’ from current abortion policy

Pro-life leader Charmaine Yoest has charged that a compromise now being considered for health care reform legislation would mark a “radical departure” from the past by sidestepping pro-life funding provisions and requiring every area of the country to have at least one health insurance plan that covers abortions.

Yoest, President of Americans United for Life, on Wednesday wrote in a Wall Street Journal opinion essay that provisions which would have explicitly prevented federal dollars from being used for elective abortions were “killed” by all five legislative committees that have handled health care reform bills.

“Instead, the abortion compromise in the works is a provision modeled on an amendment Rep. Lois Capps (D., Calif.) added to the House bill,” she reported, calling the amendment a “radical departure from the status quo.”

According to Yoest, at present the federal government does not pay into health care plans that cover elective abortions, nor are government health benefits used for such purposes.

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cross-posted from A Catholic View