California is suing over the bullshit abortion provision in the recently passed $388 billion spending bill. Jeez, CA--if only you didn't have "Girlie-Man" Schwarzenegger there, I might consider moving.
As Feministing reported last month, the provision blocks money “from going to federal, state or local agencies that act against health care providers and insurers because they don't provide abortions, make abortion referrals or cover them.” This stealthy attack on choice is similar to the increasingly common state-based conscience clause laws.
State Attorney General Bill Lockyer said that the provision "is an unprecedented attack on women's rights and state sovereignty...What the federal government says to California is this: If you want back your own taxpayer dollars for important programs that serve all the people of your state, you first have to refuse to protect the constitutional rights of the women who live in your state."
The lawsuit will be filed in federal court in California arguing that the amendment is invalid.
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"This policy simply states that health care entities should not be forced to provide elective abortions, a practice to which a majority of health care providers object and which they will not perform as a matter of conscience," said Rep. David Weldon, R-Fla., a doctor who sponsored the language.--AP
While this is a nice sop to Weldon's constiuents, the measure is toothless because Weldon is wrong about "health care entities". The "health care entity" that counts: insurance companies are basically ammoral and profit driven. What this means is that any insurance company is more than happy to pay to terminate a pregnancy because that is way cheaper than taking it to term. That economic reality will insure that abortion is provided whether or not a state requires it.
No, insurers are NOT the health care entity that counts, because they don't provide health care, they provide insurance against costs of care. Hospitals and doctors are, because they are the gateway to care, and they choose what procedures are available. And some insurers will not cover female items that are relatively small in price and relatively high in demand by the patient, because the female insureds will buy them out of pocket (pay out of pocket for contraceptive pills and abortion). However men are a favored class, and there was automatic coverage of Viagra, a lifestyle drug in most cases.
Since when did a woman's right to choose become a right to have the government pay for her abortion? When did it become the government's job to force health care providers to do abortions? There are doctors, hospitals and pharmacists who still believe in the Hippocratic Oath -- "First do no harm."
That state soveriegnty/federalism stuff is a pretty good argument - let's apply it to abortion. Every state can choose how it wants to deal with the issue. No?