Taxpayer Funding for Abortion: Another Sleeper Issue in Health Care Reform?

Randy Pate / July 17, 2009

Much of the controversy in President Obama and congressional Democrats’ health care overhaul thus far has focused on the public option and concerns with the budget-busting price tag. But as negotiations in Congress on hundreds of pages of complex legislative text continue to move at break-neck pace, all leading up to floor consideration scheduled in the next few weeks, the issue of taxpayer funding for abortion is threatening to take center stage.

Just before Congress broke for the 4th of July recess, nineteen Democrat members of the House sent a sternly worded letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, warning that “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.” (more…)