Abortion Coverage and Health Care Reform

Time Magazine: Could Abortion Coverage Sink Health-Care Reform?, by Karen Tumulty:

Should government-subsidized health coverage pay for abortion procedures? For more than three decades, that question has seemed pretty much settled. The Hyde Amendment, passed by the House on September, 30, 1976, forbade Medicaid — a program for poor people, jointly administered by Washington and the states, which had up to then paid for about 300,000 abortions a year — from using any federal money to pay for the procedure. All but 17 states followed suit, banning use of their own funds as well; with a few modifications, the ban has stood up ever since.

The prospect of sweeping health reform, however, has reopened the issue. While current versions of the legislation do not address the abortion issue at all, late last month 19 anti-abortion Democrats in the House sent a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, warning "we cannot support any health care reform proposal unless it explicitly excludes abortion from the scope of any government-defined or subsidized health insurance plan."