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Feds: Fetus Called 'Unborn Child'
By Laura Meckler
Associated Press Writer
Thursday, January 31, 2002; 2:02 PM
WASHINGTON -- A developing fetus may be
classified as an "unborn child" eligible for government health care, the Bush
administration said Thursday, giving low-income women access to prenatal care
and bolstering the arguments of abortion opponents.
The plan will make a fetus eligible for health care
under the State Children's Health Insurance Program. Because CHIP is aimed at
kids, it does not typically cover parents or pregnant women.
Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson
cited well-established data on the importance of prenatal care in explaining the
proposal.
"Prenatal care for women and their babies is a
crucial part of the medical care every person should have through the course of
their life cycle," Thompson said in a statement. "Prenatal services can be a
vital, lifelong determinant of health, and we should do everything we can to
make this care available for all pregnant women."
States, which administer CHIP, would have the
option of including include fetuses in their programs. Doing so would make the
mother eligible for prenatal and delivery care.
Abortion rights supporters complain that there are
other ways to include coverage for pregnant women in CHIP. They see Thursday's
action as a backdoor attempt to establish the fetus as a person with legal
standing, which could make it easier to criminalize abortion.
"If they're interested in covering pregnant women,
why don't they talk about pregnant women?" asked Laurie Rubiner of the National
Partnership for Women and Families. "I just have to believe their hidden agenda
is to extend personhood to a fetus."
This plan, she said, "sets legal precedent on its
head."
States may already cover pregnant women under the
health program, though they have to get specific permission from HHS since CHIP
was designed for children, not adults.
Thompson regularly promotes these waivers. He has
worked to speed the time it takes for them to be considered by federal
officials, arguing that waivers are an excellent way of expanding health
coverage to people without insurance.
In his statement Thursday, he said automatically
including the fetus is the quickest way to get prenatal services to the most
women.
The waiver process "would take longer than
extending it this way," said HHS spokesman Campbell Gardett.
Thompson said he also supports legislation pending
in the Senate that would allow states to automatically add pregnant women to
CHIP, much as poorer pregnant women are eligible for Medicaid.
Administration officials said last summer that they
were considering this policy change. At the time, the National Governors
Association cautioned HHS that while some states would embrace the new option
and some would immediately reject it, other states would face divisive battles
over whether to go along.
The new policy will not take effect until after it
is published in the Federal Register and the department considers public
comments.
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