February 11, 2002

Fetus may gain government recognition
___WASHINGTON (RNS)--The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services plans to allow states to provide health insurance for fetuses, a proposal cheered by anti-abortion groups and condemned by organizations supporting abortion rights.
___Current regulations define "child" in the State Children's Health Insurance Program as those younger than 19. The new rule would include coverage for children "from conception to age 19."
___The proposal, which will be published in the Federal Register for further consideration, could allow states to make funding available to low-income pregnant women as soon as the spring, Thompson said.
___The announcement prompted a range of reactions from groups on either side of the abortion issue.
___Kate Michelman, president of National Abortion Rights Action League, a reproductive freedom group, called the move by the Bush administration "the latest ploy in its ongoing stealth campaign to have government make abortions illegal."
___But Cathleen Cleaver, a spokeswoman for the Roman Catholic Bishops' Pro-Life Secretariat, said abortion rights groups are "seriously misguided" if they oppose the proposal.
___"Denying low-income women access to state-insured prenatal care in the name of abortion is senseless," she said.
___ Michael Schwartz, vice president of government relations for Concerned Women for America, a conservative organization, said: "Common Sense tells us that children's health begins with good prenatal care. As we recognize the humanity of unborn children whose mothers intend to give birth, that inevitably raises the question: How could we allow these same children to be killed by abortionists?"

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