To the consternation of pro-choice groups, the US government has announced its intention to allow states to make fetuses eligible for health insurance coverage under the federally subsidized State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP, www.hcfa.gov/init/children.htm).
SCHIP, a joint federal–state program, allows states to provide coverage for children under 19 whose uninsured, low-income, working parents don't qualify for Medicaid. The federal proposal would extend coverage to the point of conception to give eligible women prenatal and birthing care.
Medicaid provides prenatal care for many low-income women, but “there are still tens of thousands every year who are not eligible under current regulations until after their child is born,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson. About 10.9 million American women of child-bearing age (18–44) have no health insurance.
But to the National Abortion and Reproductive Action League (NARAL) the self-described political arm of the pro-choice movement, the federal proposal is a move to undermine abortion rights by establishing embryos as persons under the law.
NARAL President Kate Michelman says the proposal “is the latest ploy in [the government's] ongoing stealth campaign to have government make abortions illegal.” She says the proposal points “to the strategy of undermining a woman's right to choose by ascribing legal rights to embryos.” A NARAL policy statement (www .naral.org/media re sources /fact /chip _points.html), says the proposed provision could actually harm women by pitting them against the program's “patients” — the embryos. “Under this proposal, a woman's treatment for a variety of medical conditions might be denied, in favour of the embryo.”
“This is not a debate about abortion,” Thompson responded, “and those who seek to advocate for children should stop making it so. It is about our undeniable health needs throughout the life cycle.” — Milan Korcok, Florida