So-called “pregnant women” and their health care

It’s sadly unsurprising that the religious right opposes legislation that would renew and expand funding for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Not like they care about kids’ health, right? But mostly they’re pissed that Democrats have removed a few anti-choice amendments from the legislation. First, one that would have funded abstinence-only education under Title V. Now the Family Research Council is upset about this:

The new House bill changes the SCHIP program to cover health insurance for a “pregnant woman,” rather than cover the child in the womb. This would undermine the “unborn child rule” and could possibly allow funding for abortions in those States that include abortion as part of their Medicaid health coverage for pregnant women.

I love how they put “pregnant woman” in scare quotes — as if there’s allegedly a woman involved in the gestational process. The “unborn child rule” was inserted into SCHIP in 2002 by the Department of Health and Human Services, supposedly to enable states to extend coverage to “unborn children.” Repro rights groups saw it for what it was — an attempt at fetal personhood — because there are plenty of other ways to ensure this coverage is extended to fetuses in utero without using the language this rule did. And even though the Bush administration touted this rule as a way to extend coverage to pregnant women, it has had little effect. According to a National Women’s Law Center report,

Not all states chose to provide the full range of services via SCHIP that are covered in the state Medicaid program. The only requirement placed upon states in designing their SCHIP program is that the unborn child — not the mother — be adequately covered.

Which means that women aren’t covered for post-partum care (including such services as treatment of infection, treatment of complications after delivery, family planning, and mental health services). In other words, the “unborn child rule” fit quite well with the aims of the forced-pregnancy crowd.
And so once again, the anti-choice movement has a hard time “respecting life!” outside the womb. They’re fretting about the fetuses at the expense of thousands of already-born children (and pregnant women) who really need the expanded health care coverage that the SCHIP reauthorization would provide.