Abortion enters GAMC funding debate

Abortion politics got injected into the process of passing GAMC, a health care program for childless adults in Minnesota living below the poverty line. As the Minnesota House was set to pass the a bill to extend the program following unallotment of the program by Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life–sponsored amendment threatened to hijack the bill. Pawlenty vetoed the bill from the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) conference in Washington, D.C., on Thursday.

Rep. Patti Fritz, DFL-Faribault, introduced the amendment to ban taxpayer funding for abortions under GAMC.

“The GAMC program already does pay for and has paid for 60 abortions recently,” Fritz said Thursday.

But that’s incorrect, said Rep. Erin Murphy, DFL-St. Paul. “I want to be crystal clear. GAMC does not cover pregnant women.” she said. “In our legislation one of the categories of eligibility that we are being very clear about: pregnant women go to Medical Assistance.”

Murphy noted that the reason Minnesota’s Catholic bishops had put their support behind the GAMC bill was because abortions aren’t part of the program.

Who is correct? According to the Minnesota Department of Human Services, women who become pregnant while on GAMC are automatically transferred to the state’s Medical Assistance program. They don’t even need to fill out an application.

But, MCCL blurred the lines in their press release about the vote, conflating the two programs.

Taxpayers have been forced to fund abortion procedures done under both GAMC and Medical Assistance (MA), the Minnesota Medicaid program. In 1993, taxpayers paid about $7,000 for 23 abortions performed in cases of rape, incest, or where the life of the mother was in danger. In 2007, taxpayers funded 3,914 abortions at a cost of $1.58 million, according to the Minnesota Department of Human Services; the total since 1994 is 47,115 abortions and $14.1 million.

“Taxpayer funded abortions—forcing citizens to pay for the killing of unborn children—is an issue that rises above partisan and ideological politics,” Fischbach added. “Minnesotans must not be forced to pay abortionists for their destruction of innocent human life.”

The measure failed on a tied vote of 67-67.

Over the weekend, reproductive rights group hailed the defeat of the amendment.

“Anti-choice forces attempted to add an anti-choice amendment to the GAMC bill which that funds our state’s health program for low-income people,” Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota. “Thankfully, this amendment was defeated in a tie vote of 67-67.”

And NARAL Pro-Choice Minnesota sent a similar alert to members. “On Thursday the anti-choice forces introduced an egregious anti-choice amendment to the bill that funds our state’s health program for low-income people,” said the group’s director Linnea House. “That’s right; it was a Stupak/Pitts-type amendment to a program that doesn’t even cover abortion. Fortunately, the amendment was defeated by a tied vote and the bill went on to approval 125 to 9.”