Stupak Stupidity

There are those who are accuse Deomcratic Representative Bart Stupak of Michigan of turning Republican after putting forth the short sighted and discriminatory anti-women’s rights amendment to the health care bill. I disagree. No competent Republican would endorse a bill that would result in such a fiscal time bomb.

Rep. Stupak, you need to reconsider the financial impact of your “cost saving” measure to the health care industry, existing welfare programs and the tax payers, you claim to be protecting. You have failed to consider the costs on society of a single parent and children born into households already unable to afford minimal health care and other necessities of life.

Yes, this would save the government the expense of pre-op examinations, the surgical procedure itself and doctor’s fee for possibly an office check-up afterward. I have heard this could amount to about almost $2000.00 which I, and many single women, could ill afford. So your plan would work in establishing a financial deterrent to abortion. Which you have to admit is the real reason for your drafting this amendment, rather than any real issue over the cost to the government or tax payers.

The result of your success will be the classic unwed mother and her unwanted child living on welfare because someone who cannot afford $2000 for an abortion certainly cannot afford to feed, clothe and properly care for a child. So it is the government and the tax payers who will make up the deficit.

We will pay for months of pre-natal health care, the cost of the delivery, the post delivery stay in the hospital though various governmental assistance programs. This alone far exceeds the cost of the abortion.

We will pay for the child’s pediatric care.

We will pay for the either the mother to go on welfare to provide day care for the child, or we will subsidize the day care she finds.

We will pay for these unwanted children with higher demands on agencies dealing with abandoned and abused children.

We will pay for the higher demand on already scarce resources for indigent families.

We will pay for the already crippling demand for emergency care for these who will be left with no other choice.

Your amendment is simply another way to further penalize the economically challenged. Those in your tax bracket will not be deterred from abortion because they can afford to hire such services.

Your amendment is simply another way to further penalize the women of this country, who continue to be the ones who bear the burden of pregnancy and child birth when there is not a second parent taking responsibility.