Obama's Health Care Speach

[vadakiss]

Thank you for the suggestion of factcheck.org !

I wanted to check some things out because i heard of some "Obama want's insurance to cover abortion" rumors on FB.

I went to the site and this is what i found: 
 

Abortion

The president insisted that no federal money would pay for abortions:

Obama: [U]nder our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions.

The truth of that depends on what is meant by “federal dollars.” Actually, as we’ve written before, under Democratic legislation now before Congress, the “public option” would cover abortions in cases of rape, incest or threat to the life of the mother and could cover all abortions if the administration chooses, and as Obama once promised. Private insurance plans purchased with the help of federal subsidies to low- and moderate-income workers also could cover all abortions, as many, if not most, private plans do today.

Under an amendment adopted by a House committee, abortions would be paid for by the "public option" only with money collected from policyholders in the form of premiums, not with money collected from taxpayers. But is money collected by the government and paid out to abortion providers by the government “federal dollars"? The anti-abortion side says yes. And the same goes for federal subsidies given to low- and moderate-income persons to help them buy insurance. If they use those dollars to buy private policies that cover all abortions, does that mean “federal dollars” go to fund abortions? Again, abortion foes say yes.

The advocates of abortion rights argue otherwise. They say the House bill would be an extension of longstanding policy under the Hyde amendment, which forbids use of federal taxpayer dollars to fund Medicaid abortions except in cases of rape, incest or threat to the mother’s life, but also allows states to use their own Medicaid money to fund other abortions (and 17 of them do). In any case, the matter is not so simple or clear as the president would like it to seem.

Ever since i was little, i've always been partially okay with Abortion for rape cases. ONLY rape cases. Until i had children. Then when i had children, i thought that there is SOMEONE out there that would love to take care of your baby. Give it a loving home, a loving family support, etc. But then i was thinking that no one is going to want to live with the "i am a product of rape" for the rest of their life.

I guess i am torn on the way i feel.

How do you feel?

Comments

[yohjideranged]

That would be great if adoption worked that way, but the fact is that people would rather have there own children either the usual way or with the help of fertility drugs than go through a long adoption process.

It is quite a sad thing when it can be much easier to adopt a child from another country than your own.

I also wonder how a woman who has been raped would deal with carrying the product of that rape for nine months. If they can deal with that emotional reminder for that long before moving on, that's great, but I don't think I would be strong enough or emotionally able after a rape to even take care of myself, let alone keep my body in the shape that it needs for the baby to be of optimum health for delivery.

[vadakiss]

Oh i totally know what you mean. After having two children, i couldn't even imagine holding something, that was yes, your child, but a child that was conceived in such a horrid way.

It really makes me think about what i would do in that situation.

[hebinekohime]

I've always been for abortion on demand, with no exceptions. Here's why.

Given the choice between a fetus who might become a person and the well-being of people who are already here, what would you choose? You're assuming that other women are hunky-dory with carrying a fetus that they can't support and can't keep. Pregnancy's difficult... it's a strain on a body that may not be doing so well to begin with. Suppose that your being pregnant put you or your family in harm's way... would you still be only partially OK with abortion? And why do you get to decide for other people?

It's one thing to love children, quite another to force someone else to bear them, and making abortion harder to obtain equals forced pregnancy for those who don't pass the litmus test. Of course we should have federally funded abortion; to say otherwise discriminates against the weakest and poorest in our society.

[vadakiss]

Wow, thank you so much for this! I am glad you took the time to share this with me, because it gave me a different perspective. I had yet to understand a decent reason for abortion. I guess you can't decide for everyone, and every case is different! Hmm...

[akte]

I've always been of the belief that a woman should be able to make her own decisions about what is best for her, her family, and the fetus. Making abortions more difficult to obtain legally won't stop them occurring, it will just force desperate women who are already making a very difficult decision to find other - probably more dangerous/risky for them and the fetus - ways of going about it.

When I was sixteen I took my best friend to get an abortion. We both took the day off school and went to the clinic. We got there really early and went inside. It was a really nicely appointed place, but no matter how comfortable the furnishings and how nice the staff were, it was one of the most depressing places I have ever been in. Not one of the women who were going in for the procedure weren't bothered by it. It was clear it was not a light decision for any of them. I really clearly remember one young couple - probably eighteen or nineteen - who were there with the girls mother. From bits of conversation I had overheard they were getting an abortion because they were genuinely afraid that the girls father would kill her if he found out, because the boyfriends family were from the wrong country/religion. There were others too - an older woman, another who would probably have been late twenties - and the weight of the decision they made was obvious on all of their faces.

The friend I was with was not even remotely emotionally equipped to be bringing a child in to the world. She now has two beautiful daughters - one born three years later and the other another five years after that - and she is in a much better place now, but at the time she was quite honestly one of the last people you would want to have a baby.

What I *do* have a problem with is the few - VERY few - women who use abortion as a method of birth control. I think measures should be put in place so that women who have had more than one abortion can be counselled on the various methods of birth control available to them. Beyond that, ultimately it should still be their choice, but one that they can be encouraged to rethink.

[vadakiss]

I could only imagine what the situation would have been like. You were a good friend for doing that!

[serene]

I feel like the only body I should be making decisions about is my own, and that other people need to be free to make their own. I believe I would never choose an abortion for myself. And in fact, when I was raped, I made sure they did NOT give me a morning-after pill. But just because that's my choice for ME, that doesn't give me the right to make that choice for someone else, any more than I would tell someone else they should or should not go on a diet, get an organ transplant, or have a sex change. Their body, their choice. And it's the hardest decision some of them will ever make. I don't intend to make it harder.

In addition, even though I don't ever want to have an abortion myself, I will fight for it to remain safe, legal, and affordable, so that no more women will die in botched back-alley abortions. I don't think that having an abortion should be a death-penalty offense. Women DIE when abortion is illegal. That's just wrong.

[vadakiss]

I am sorry you had to go through what you went through but i am glad you were strong enough to make the choices you wanted to make!

I agree, with your last statement! Really, all of it!

[naive]

I'm always afraid people will be offended when I open my mouth about abortions, because I believe so strongly in my side. So, I'm sorry if I'm too harsh in this comment, but I find this subject very provoking.

I don't see, nor have I ever seen, any reason why abortions should be illegal or restricted. I have tried time and time again to put myself in the position of those who do not think highly of abortions, but it is impossible for me to find a single argument against abortion that can't be shot down with reason within half a second.

I also think it's madness that some people want to stop women from being able to go through abortions. If they don't want to have an abortion, then go ahead - let them be pregnant and happy. This body and this life, however, is mine. I will decide what to do with it.