It seems my U.S. Senator, Claire McCaskill has been well covered in the news lately for the noise that has been made at some of her town hall meetings in the state this month. Most of the coverage is of how she has handled the criticism and denied the liberal talking points about these being manufactured protests. But this week she made headlines – at least among pro-lifers – for promising, at a meeting in Hillsboro, MO on Tuesday, that she would not vote for a bill that changes the federal law (which she says prohibits it) in terms of funding abortion.” Which you can see in this video (from 4:30-6:25).

If this claim is true, it comes in stark contrast to the position she’s held thus far. LifeNews reports, Sen. McCaskill voted just seven months ago against an amendment to restore the Mexico City Policy which would prohibit taxpayer funding of groups that promote and perform abortions overseas. And she voted another three times in 2007 and 2008 against limits on funding abortions or groups that do them. Now, I suppose one could argue that none of those things had anything to do with actively funding or not funding the abortions themselves, but still, these votes, coupled with her emphatic support for abortion rights and cozy relationship with pro-abortion groups like NARAL and Emily’s List, make it kind of…ok, really, REALLY hard to believe that she would reject an entire heath care reform bill if she thought that it would require the federal government to fund abortion services.

And what about McCaskill’s repeated insistence that the Senate bill will not mandate abortion coverage? She and others get away with this claim, of course, by pointing out that abortion is not specifically mentioned in the health care proposal. But, as Missouri Right to Life president, Pam Fichter explains, that doesn’t mean that abortion will not be covered:

While, as she said, the word “abortion” doesn’t appear in the Kennedy bill, the term “essential benefit” in the Kennedy bill will be interpreted by the courts to mandate abortion coverage as illustrated by past administrative and legal interpretation. For example, the federal Medicaid statute was interpreted to require abortion coverage even though the law did not mention abortion. [Planned Parenthood Affiliates of Michigan v. Engler, 73 F.3d 634, 636 (6th Cir. 1996)]. This funding was subsequently prohibited by the Hyde Amendment. Once abortion is mandated as an “essential benefit,” the result will be federally mandated coverage of abortion on demand in virtually all of America’s health plans. The Kennedy bill also requires participating plans to ensure a “wide choice of providers,” which will require establishment of additional abortion-providing sites. In addition, Missouri laws that impede “access” to the “essential benefit” of abortion, such as waiting periods and parental consent, may be nullified to comply with the federal law. All efforts to explicitly exclude abortion or to prevent health care providers from being penalized for refusing to participate in providing abortions were defeated along party lines in the Senate committee.

In subsequent radio interviews, when asked about abortion coverage in the Senate bill, Sen.McCaskill erroneously stated that the Hyde Amendment would prevent any federal money from being used for abortion. According to an August 5 report by the Associated Press, while the Hyde amendment applies restrictions to Medicaid, the federal employee health plan and military programs, the Hyde amendment would not apply to the new streams of federal funding in the proposed health care plans. The AP article states that Senate staff aides “confirmed that the public plan – and private insurance offered in the exchange – would be allowed to cover abortion, without funding restrictions. “

Actually, there has been an amendment passed in committee that OKs coverage for abortion – under the auspices of “woman’s health.”

The only way to ensure that abortions will not be covered under the federal health care reform is if specific language is written into the bill that excludes taxpayer funds from paying for abortions. Find out more at StopTheAbortionMandadte.com