Part 2

Now, with major healthcare reform legislation under consideration, we have an opportunity to make amends. But the portents are not promising. The White House has refused to rule out including abortion in the healthcare package, but President Obama is already signaling that the status quo on abortion is likely to endure. In an interview with Katie Couric, the president said, "I'm pro-choice, but I also think we have a tradition in this town, historically, of not financing abortions as part of government funded healthcare."

Pro-life Democrats are not the only ones pressuring Obama. Part of the problem is the president's insistence on seeking common ground. Moderate evangelicals like David Gushee, who supported Obama's election based on the candidate's commitment to reducing the need for abortion, say they will be "very unhappy if healthcare reform ends up becoming a vehicle for government subsidized or even mandatory coverage of abortion." And then there's the religious right, which has launched a "Stop the Mandate" campaign aimed at gaining a specific exclusion of abortion coverage in any healthcare reform plan.

The healthcare plan has now been delayed. The longer it takes to pass a plan the more momentum against including coverage for abortion -- and possibly contraception -- will build. If the past is any predictor of the future, then there is a good chance there will be limits on government funding for abortions in the healthcare package, if not outright exclusion.

Sure enough, compromise proposals are being floated before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The compromise currently under consideration would neither require nor prohibit private insurers in the government plan from offering abortion coverage -- so long as no government funds are used. Whether this would result in a reduction of coverage in such plans is unclear, but it is possible. And this compromise leaves out 16.7 million women not on Medicaid but without private health insurance who will need the public option for healthcare coverage.

The timing is critical. The need is great, and growing. Reproductive health clinics are reporting a sharp rise in the number of women seeking abortion who have been hit hard by the economic recession and job loss. If abortion services are excluded from the healthcare reform package, the number of women who will not be able to afford abortions is bound to rise and the number of unwanted children will increase. Women and children especially will find themselves in a downward spiral toward poverty, ill health and discontent.

One hears over and over again that we all agree that the healthcare system is broken; the status quo is not acceptable. The status quo on coverage for abortion is especially unacceptable. Tina Tchen, director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, met last week with Planned Parenthood advocates in Washington and made clear that unless women get back into campaign mode and lobby hard for what they want in the healthcare package, they might not get what they need.

Let's hope the message got through.