A MATTER OF FAIRNESS

Although abortion is politically divisive and emotionally charged, it is legal. The federal and state low-income health program covers hundreds of medical procedures, but only some abortions. LD 1309 would end this artificial divide in Maine and should be supported by lawmakers.

After abortion became legal in 1973, as a result of the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade, Medicaid covered abortions without restrictions. In 1997, Congress passed a provision from Illinois Rep. Henry Hyde that restricted federal funding for abortions. Initially, the Hyde amendment allowed funding in cases of rape, incest and the threat of death or physical damage to the woman. Over time the health, rape and incest exceptions were removed. In 1993, Congress added back in the rape and incest provisions, so currently Medicaid is required to cover abortions in cases of rape and incest and when the woman’s life is in danger.

Twenty-three states provide funding beyond the Hyde Amendment; 17, including Alaska, Connecticut, Montana and Massachusetts, provide funding for all or most medically necessary abortions.

LD 1309, sponsored by Senate President Beth Edmonds, would put Maine into this category. It is expected to cost less than $300,000 a year. Only two other procedures – sterilization and hysterectomies – require that special conditions are met to be covered by Medicaid.

Some will argue that they don’t want their tax dollars to go toward a procedure that they object to. Under this standard, funding could be withheld for any number of programs or activities that people find objectionable. The lottery, hunting-related work of the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and tax collection come to mind at the state level; the Department of Defense at the federal level.

Deciding whether to allow low-income women to access a procedure available to their better-off peers is a decision that shouldn’t be made based on popularity, but on fairness. According to the National Abortion Federation, low-income women often delay abortions while they gather the money to pay for them. This results in more expensive and more risky procedures.

This is not something Maine should want to perpetuate, and LD 1309 gives lawmakers a way to restore fairness to the situation.