More distractions and entanglements

Abortion Fight Complicates Debate on Health Care - NYTimes.com:

Abortion opponents in both the House and the Senate are seeking to block the millions of middle- and lower-income people who might receive federal insurance subsidies to help them buy health coverage from using the money on plans that cover abortion. And the abortion opponents are getting enough support from moderate Democrats that both sides say the outcome is too close to call. Opponents of abortion cite as precedent a 30-year-old ban on the use of taxpayer money to pay for elective abortions.

Abortion-rights supporters say such a restriction would all but eliminate from the marketplace private plans that cover the procedure, pushing women who have such coverage to give it up. Nearly half of those with employer-sponsored health plans now have policies that cover abortion, according to a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

So, every woman has a right to control her own body . . . if she can afford it. It annoys the hell out of me when people with one-track policy minds insist on making every discussion about their pet issue. What is really, really ironic here is that the people insisting that no publicly subsidized plan pay for abortion are the same people who are foaming at the mouth about how "the government is going to come between you and your doctor and tell you what treatments you can and can't have." Hypocrisy at its very finest.