Gov. Bush's Amicus Brief Opposes Tax-Funded Abortion

AUSTIN - - Pro-life Texas Gov. George W. Bush has filed a friend of the court brief with a state appeals court stating his strong opposition to an attempt by pro-abortionists to compel the state to pay for elective abortions.

Submitted to a three-judge panel of Texas's Third Court of Appeals, Gov. Bush's brief came shortly before arguments were heard February 10 in a lawsuit brought by six abortion providers to force the state to pay for abortions for Medicaid-eligible women. The state's position had previously been upheld by a state district court.

Sixty-seven Texas state senators and representatives also filed a separate brief opposing taxpayer-funded abortions.

"Gov. Bush is making a very strong statement about his positionhe is pro-life," said Monica Hatcher, media relations director for Texas Right to Life. Linda Edwards, Bush's spokeswoman, told reporters that Bush filed "because he opposes using taxpayer dollars for abortions and knows most Texans do as well."

"We applaud Gov. Bush for his principled stand against forcing taxpayers to reimburse abortion providers," said Joe Pojman, Ph.D., executive director of Greater Austin Right to Life. " Funding abortions would be bad for taxpayers, and it would send a message to poor women that their children are not welcome in Texas."

Texas's current policy limits abortion funding to cases of rape, incest, or to save a woman's life.

Three abortionists and three abortion facilities brought suit to be reimbursed for elective abortions performed on Medicaid-eligible women. Counsel for the providers is the New York-based Center for Reproductive Law and Policy.

On the surface the suit asserts that the abortion providers are asking only for funding for "medically necessary" abortions. This description is very misleading.

Years of case law have made it clear that "medically necessary" abortion is a legal term of art that includes any elective abortion, including those for birth control and when the child is not the "right" gender. Even abortions performed on minors without parental notification or consent would be funded (see " What Does 'Medically Necessary' Really Mean?" NRL News, 12/10/98, p. 4).

According to the Associated Press, in 1977, the last year Texas paid for Medicaid abortions, the state paid for more than 3,000 abortions. Thanks to the protective law, in recent years the annual number has dwindled to fewer than two dozen.

The three-judge panel of the Third Court of Appeals is expected to take from three months to a year to hand down its decision.