Bush Proposal Gives States Right to Include Unborn in Prenatal Care

By Dave Andrusko

In a move predictably lambasted by pro-abortionists, the Bush Administration is proposing a regulation which would allow (not compel) states to offer prenatal care beginning at conception under the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).

What the Bush proposal would do is simply give the states (which administer SCHIP) the option of including the unborn in their programs. This makes his or her mother eligible for prenatal and delivery care.

Enacted by Congress in 1997, SCHIP's purpose is "to deliver health care to low-income children in families that made too much money to qualify for the joint state-federal Medicaid program but too little to purchase private health insurance," as the Boston Globe explained.

Currently SCHIP covers low-income children under age 19 whose families aren't eligible for Medicaid. (Medicaid is the state- federal health-insurance program for the poor.) According to estimates provided by the Health and Human Services Department (HHS), nearly 11 million women of childbearing age lack health insurance.

"Prenatal care for women and their babies is a crucial part of the medical care every person should have through the course of their life cycle," said Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson. "Prenatal services can be a vital, lifelong determinant of health, and we should do everything we can to make this care available for all pregnant women."

Although Thompson pointed out that the proposed change had nothing to do with abortion, that did nothing to quell a verbal uprising by pro-abortionists."

It undermines the whole premise of Roe v. Wade by giving legal status to a fetus from the moment of conception," lamented Marcia Greenberger of the National Women's Law Center. "There's a pattern here to establish fetal personhood," complained Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women. Pro- abortionists angrily maintained that the proposed change would set "precedents."

NRLC Federal Legislative Director Douglas Johnson told reporters one "precedent" it might set is to allow the unborn to be eligible for other kinds of public health benefits. In any event, he explained HHS's position is consistent with laws passed in many states that say the unborn have a variety of legal rights, including inheritance and being defined as victims of crimes.

Thompson told reporters at a press conference that the proposed regulation would be published in the Federal Register in the coming weeks. The public will be able to comment before it becomes final.

The proposal does not need congressional approval.

dave andrusko can be reached at dha1245@juno.com