Obama Bars Abortion Coverage From Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plans

It's  bird ... it's a plane ... no, it's Obama, swooping in to defend the right wing against women controlling their own bodies. Not the superhero agenda I was expecting when I voted for him.

This week, Pennsylvania set off an uproar among opponents of reproductive rights when it decided to include abortion coverage for a wide range of physical and mental health factors in its Pre-existing Condition Insurance Plan (PCIP). These "high-risk pools" were implemented under health reform to provide immediate coverage to those unlucky individuals who cannot get typical insurance due to pre-existing conditions, and will be phased out in 2014 when the planned insurance exchanges replace them. And all the screeching of anti-choicers panned out, with President Barack Obama handing down a ban on all coverage of abortion in these pools, except for when it is allowed by the Hyde Amendment (rape, incest, life endangerment).

RH Reality Check explains that this essentially applies the hated Stupak Amendment to high-risk pools. Obama appears to be acting due to the executive order he signed that was supposed to do nothing more than reiterate what the Hyde Amendment already prohibits. So they told us, at least, when they were explaining why getting Stupak's vote without his Amendment required such an anti-women's rights move by the president. Turn's out, suspicions by defenders of reproductive rights that this was quite the tall tale have now been proved valid.

But Obama didn't need to choose to make this decision for PCIPs, which are not explicitly covered by the Hyde Amendment or the executive order itself. Why does the President feel the need to go above and beyond the call of duty when serving the interests of people who want to control women's bodies? Do they know his kryptonite?

As Planned Parenthood points out, the women who need to use the pre-existing conditions pool are more likely to suffer from health complications that make pregnancy a greater risk. The right of these women to access affordable reproductive care and make the best decision for their bodies should be guarded as especially precious, not tossed aside. The "life endangerment" exemption is far too narrow, especially for women who already have health problems; they shouldn't have to prove they're on the verge of dying before the law accepts that maybe they have a right to their own life even if being used as an incubator. Obama could have let states like Pennsylvania make their own decisions about what should be covered for the "well-being of the woman," allowing for greater attention to be paid to what's best for a woman's health in making medical decisions.

Instead, Obama came swooping in to stop the right-wing temper tantrums by giving them exactly what they wanted, at our expense. So much for Superman; it's times like these it feels like we need a Wonder Woman to do the job.

Photo credit: spleeney