MORE ON WHY PRO-LIFERS ARE PRO-W:

Bush Rule Makes Fetuses Eligible for Health Benefits (ROBERT PEAR, September 28, 2002, NY Times)

The Bush administration issued final rules today allowing states to define a fetus as a child eligible for government-subsidized health care under the Children's Health Insurance Program.

"`Child' means an individual under the age of 19, including the period from conception to birth," the regulation says. [...]

Critics said the administration was trying to create a precedent for viewing a fetus as a separate physical and legal entity, with its own rights. By enhancing the status of the fetus, they said, the administration undercuts a woman's right to control her life and to obtain an abortion.

But the administration said the rule would not set up "an adversarial relationship between the mother and her unborn child." Moreover, it said, "there is no conflict, as the services to be provided benefit both mother and child."

When the Supreme Court recognized a right to abortion in Roe v. Wade, in 1973, it said that the word "person," as used in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, "does not include the unborn." The Bush administration said it saw no contradiction between that ruling and the new rule, which gives states "maximum flexibility" to include a fetus among those eligible for the child health program.

This is called sliding the camel's nose under the edge of the tent. Posted by Orrin Judd at September 28, 2002 11:05 AM