{"id":222,"date":"2009-09-10T16:29:26","date_gmt":"2009-09-10T16:29:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/09\/health-care-speech-and-the-tru.html"},"modified":"2009-09-10T16:29:26","modified_gmt":"2009-09-10T16:29:26","slug":"health-care-speech-and-the-tru","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/09\/health-care-speech-and-the-tru.html","title":{"rendered":"Health Care Speech and the Truth About Abortion Coverage"},"content":{"rendered":"

I don’t know which polls you are looking at, but it appears that there was a double digit growth <\/a>in support of the President’s basic approach after he spoke to the joint session of Congress.  He also told the truth about what the healthcare plan–at least as it is moving through the House of Representatives–doesn’t cover.  It doesn’t have the federal government funding any types of abortions not already funded by Medicaid under the so-called “Hyde amendment”.<\/p>\n

Jay, it seems absolutely clear that an amendment by Congresswoman Lois Capps <\/a>of California is a brilliantly conceived resolution of the whole matter.  Unfortunately, it has been villified<\/font> by many on the Right and simply misunderstood by the generally responsible group Factcheck.org.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Let’s take this piece by piece.  If there is a “public option” in the final bill, the Capps language makes it clear that federal funds can only be used to provide abortions involving rape, incest or the life of the mother.  It then says that the Secretary of Health and Human Services may allow for other abortions to be covered but only by privately acquired funds.  Those funds might be paid by an individual or by an employer, and will be segregated from federal funds.  This kind of accounting occurs routinely in government programs.<\/p>\n

But, what about those “affordability credits” that might be used to help pay for the “public” or any available private insurance plan?  The Capps amendment makes it clear that any elective abortions cannot be counted against the premium subsidies these credits represent.  Those abortions must be paid for privately with an abortion-specific premium add on (what some call an “abortion surcharge”.)  Only by the most bizarre stretch of the imagination could one argue that these specific payments somehow constitute “federal funding” of abortion.<\/p>\n

The Capps amendment even includes a provision guaranteeing that at least one plan in any selection of public and\/or private insurers must  provide no abortion coverage.  This led the Los Angeles Times <\/a>to editorialize earlier this week that the bill actually provides “a degree of choice that abortion opponents may not have today.”<\/p>\n

If I were a member of Congress (don’t worry, I’m not running), I don’t think I could vote for a healthcare bill that didn’t cover comprehensive reproductive health care. However, I do understand that people of goodwill might decide to fight that battle another day.  Congresswoman Capps’ creative compromise deserves respect, not the opprobrium of the Right.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don’t know which polls you are looking at, but it appears that there was a double digit growth in support of the President’s basic approach after he spoke to the joint session of Congress.  He also told the truth about what the healthcare plan–at least as it is moving through the House of Representatives–doesn’t…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,123],"tags":[384,76,250,249,51,67],"class_list":["post-222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-abortion","category-president-barack-obama","tag-abortion","tag-barack-obama","tag-healthcare-reform","tag-lois-capps","tag-news","tag-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nHealth Care Speech and the Truth About Abortion Coverage - Lynn v. 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An accomplished speaker and lecturer, Lynn has appeared frequently on television and radio broadcasts to offer analysis of First Amendment issues. News programs on which Lynn has appeared include PBS's \"NewsHour,\" NBC's \"Today Show,\" Fox News Channel's \"O'Reilly Factor,\" ABC's \"Nightline,\" CNN's \"Crossfire,\" CBS's \"60 Minutes,\" MSNBC's \"Countdown with Keith Olbermann,\" Fox News Channel's \"Hannity & Colmes,\" ABC's \"Good Morning America,\" CNN's \"Larry King Live\" and the national nightly news on NBC, ABC and CBS. On the radio, Lynn serves as host of \"Culture Shocks,\" a daily look at various issues affecting society and the culture. In the 1990s he served for two years as regular co-host of \"Pat Buchanan and Company\" and after that did a weekly syndicated radio program, \"Review of the News,\" with Col. Oliver North. Lynn is a regular guest on nationally broadcast radio programs, including National Public Radio's \"All Things Considered,\" \"Morning Edition\" and \"Talk of the Nation,\" as well as having appeared on national networks such as CBS Radio, CNN Radio, ABC Radio and AP Radio. Lynn began his professional career working at the national office of the United Church of Christ, including a two-year stint as legislative counsel for the Church's Office of Church in Society in Washington, D.C. From 1984 to 1991 he was legislative counsel for the Washington office of the American Civil Liberties Union. In 2006, Lynn authored Piety & Politics: The Right-Wing Assault On Religious Freedom (Harmony Books). In 2008 he coauthored (with C. Welton Gaddy) First Freedom First: A Citizen's Guide to Protecting Religious Liberty and the Separation of Church and State (Beacon Press). Lynn writes frequently on religious liberty issues, and has had essays published in outlets such as USA Today, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Nation. Lynn also has op-eds published frequently by the McClatchy and Scripps-Howard newspaper chains. A member of the Washington, D.C. and U.S. Supreme Court bar, Lynn earned his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1978. In addition, he received his theology degree from Boston University School of Theology in 1973. Lynn, who was born in Harrisburg, Pa., and raised in Bethlehem, Pa., lives in Chevy Chase, Md., with his family.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/author\/blynn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}