EDITORIAL

Stop the funding of abortion in its infancy

Posted

With new federal healthcare exchanges mandated by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on the horizon, some states have taken measures to ensure that abortion not be funded by taxpayers.

In Pennsylvania, the state Senate recently passed a bill that prohibits taxpayer funding of abortions in the federal healthcare exchanges. The bill, which had already passed the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, now goes to Governor Tom Corbett who has promised to sign the measure into law. The bill also prohibits funding for abortion in private healthcare plans that include a federal subsidy.

In Rhode Island, the creation of the healthcare exchanges has been led by a committee appointed by the anti-life Governor Lincoln Chafee under the direction of the equally anti-life Lt. Governor Elizabeth Roberts. At present, the Rhode Island Exchange would still force taxpayers to pay for abortions. Legislative efforts to prohibit such funding were advanced by the state Senate but died in the House of Representatives. No such protections have been offered during this legislative session.

Abortion can never be considered “preventive medicine” nor health care as the sole intent of the procedure is killing an unborn, innocent child. While such a medical procedure is abhorrent in and of itself, it is made even more objectionable when taxpayers are forced to fund such evil. We hope that, in the waning days of the General Assembly’s legislative session, efforts are renewed to protect the unborn and ensure the evil of abortion is not funded by taxpayer funds. Pennsylvania has offered an example to the Ocean State, one that should be emulated soon.