Reclaiming Our Children: A Blog About Healing After Abortion

A
local Planned Parenthood official has bluntly admitted why health
insurance companies are increasingly comfortable with covering
abortions: because the choice to kill an unborn child is cheaper than
giving birth.

“A first trimester abortion is $300 to $450,” Baltimore Planned
Parenthood CEO John Nugent told the national business magazine Forbes
Thursday. “But if the gestational age is higher you’re paying for a
surgical suite. That’s why the insurance companies think they should be
offering it. It’s cheaper to terminate an unwanted pregnancy rather
than taking it to term.”

The Forbes article points out the cost estimates offered by the
Health Care Blue Book: it lists a typical abortion in a physician’s
office costing $397, while a vaginal delivery costs $5,992, and a
caeserean section is $8,558.

The issue of private abortion coverage has been spotlighted by the
abortion-funding debate swirling around President Obama’s health care
overhaul, which was originally structured to begin quietly funding
abortion with government funds by default.  Abortion advocates are
lobbying full-force against an amendment in the House version of the
bill that applies Hyde-amendment restrictions for federal abortion
funding.  Because the Hyde language restricts taxpayer dollars from
funding any private plan covering abortion, customers would have to
purchase the abortion coverage in a separate, supplemental plan.

Nugent suggested that insurance companies “won’t talk about” their
reasons for covering abortion, despite the fact that the debate on
Capitol Hill could considerably impact their revenue.

In a CNSnews.com op-ed Wednesday, Students for Life Executive
Director Kristan Hawkins noted that a provision in the Senate health
care bill mandating coverage for abortion was dangerous for unborn
children diagnosed with expensive disabilities or diseases,
particularly in a health economy hampered by increased dependence on
government funding.

“Sadly, there are many in the medical profession today who see the
cure of many devastating diseases as simply the elimination of those
pre-born with the diseases,” wrote Hawkins.

http://catholicexchange.com/2010/01/11/125979/