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The 1976 Hyde Amendment was passed to prevent people that had moral problems with abortion from having to have their tax dollars fund abortion. This was part of the natural reaction of the Pro-Life side to the fact that the United States Supreme Court “found” the right to have an abortion hidden between the lines of the Constitution.
In the Affordable Health Care for America Act passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, the Stupak-Pitts amendment disallows any federal funds being spent on abortion. So what’s the Pro-Choice side so up in arms about?
Expectations and Games
The government is a weird place. Have of the time you have to actually think through what’s being said because of all the double speak. For example, sometimes you’ll hear about spending cuts that aren’t really spending cuts at all—they’re a reduction of what we could spend in the next budget. In reality, we’d still be spending more.
In the case of this health care bill, what’s happened in that the Democrats believed that they’d be able to roll into their legislation coverage for abortion. They figured they were going to make quite the advance into the territory of providing abortion services to all women that wanted them and use this bill to justify spending tax dollars on it.
Only they didn’t check with the Pro-Life Democrats.
So when the Stupak-Pitts amendment came into play, it really didn’t change the game. It kept the status quo. The problem was that the Pro-Abortion industry believed that they were going to be able to benefit, so they scream foul.
Time for a Vote
In some ways I wish that the Federal Government had the same referendum processes that are in place in Maine and California. I think it’s high time that the American people got asked whether they believe that there should be unlimited access to abortion, whether it should be left up to the states, and under what conditions.
I think that we need to somehow find a way to take the issue out of the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction and find a way to ask the people. Because until it comes from us instead of 9 people in robes, we’ll continue to have this fight.
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