Word: medicaid
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...moral idiot. Four years ago, the Supreme Court declared it legal to terminate a pregnancy in the first three months, or up to six months in some circumstances. About a million legal abortions are now performed every year in the U.S.-a third of them paid for with Medicaid funds. But last month the Supreme Court decided, by a vote of 6 to 3, that the states and localities are free, if they wish, to deny Medicaid money for abortions. Both houses of Congress have made their contribution by passing provisions that forbid federal Medicaid payments for abortions, although...
...very least, not to compound it. The judicial system is meant to mediate, to knock the chaos of human behavior into a manageable pattern. The goal of fairness underlies American education, which has been regarded, sometimes more hopefully than accurately, as the way to give everyone an equal chance. Medicaid was meant to provide fairness in health care, so that if a poor man needs an $800 appendectomy or a $15,000 coronary bypass, he will, in theory, receive something like the same treatment as a character who arrives at the hospital by grossen Mercedes...
Antiabortionists should put themselves on the line and sign up at Medicaid centers to raise, feed, clothe and educate the children they wish to "save." After all, if they care so much, they wouldn't want to see these children grow up in homes in the slums with too little food, or heat or education-not to mention love-would they...
Pregnancy is not a disease, nor is it completely unavoidable. But even the best contraceptive methods are not infallible, and the only sure way to avoid pregnancy is abstention. By that standard, perhaps the court believes that Medicaid recipients who smoke should not be covered for cancer treatments; no one has to smoke, after all. The court's decision adds one more injustice to those the poor and disabled suffer in our society, an injustice that will be visited on the children as well as their parents...
...MONTH, the Massachusetts legislature will consider a bill similar to those that have already cut off Medicaid abortion payments in eight states. At the moment, the legislature seems likely to pass it. Gov. Michael S. Dukakis has said he will veto the bill if it passes, but no politician is completely trustworthy on this issue; the anti-abortion lobby is far too vocal for an elected official to ignore. Anti-abortionists have already begun to lobby for the votes they would need to override the veto, anyway. Public opinion polls have shown repeatedly that a vast majority of Americans believe...