Kline, Bachmann sponsor bill that could allow hospitals to refuse emergency abortions
Monday, February 07, 2011 at 1:38 pm
- 20 Comments
Reps. John Kline and Michele Bachmann are cosponsors of a bill that would allow faith-based hospitals and health care clinics to deny women emergency abortions, pro-choice advocates say. The Protect Life Act would prevent private health insurance policies offered in the health exchanges set up by last year’s health care reform from paying for abortion. It also OKs a “conscience clause” which allows religious people to deny care for women seeking an abortion.
According to the bill, the government “may not subject any institutional or individual health care entity to discrimination, or require any health plan created or regulated under this Act to subject any institutional or individual health care entity to discrimination, on the basis that the health care entity refuses to” perform abortions, train its staff to perform abortion, or provide referrals for abortions if the hospital or clinic won’t perform them.
As Talking Points Memo reports, the practical application of the bill would be to allow faith-based hospitals and clinics to refuse any and all abortions including when the mother’s life would be saved by an emergency abortion.
“I think a majority of Americans would agree with us that saving a woman’s life should be every hospital’s first priority,” Alexa Kolbi-Molina, an attorney with the ACLU told TPM. “We all know a woman who has faced a complication in her pregnancy … we would hope that when that woman goes to a hospital she would be protected and get the care that she needs.”
“I think a majority of Americans would believe that a hospital should not be imposing their religious beliefs when providing care, especially life-saving care,” she added.
The bill would also ban private health insurance policies that cover abortion from participating in the health insurance exchanges that are a part of the Affordable Care Act. And a part of that ban contains the same language related to “forcible rape” as another bill sponsored by Bachmann and Kline, as well as Reps. Chip Cravaack and Collin Peterson, that generated considerable controversy last week.
That bill would have changed the definition of rape to exclude many forms of non-consensual sex, including date rape and statutory rape. The bill’s author conceded that he would change that language.
The Daily Show’s Kristen Schaal uses humor to demonstrate how the change in the definition of rape in the bill might affect women who have been the victims of sexual assault:
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Follow Andy Birkey on Twitter20 Comments
Comment posted February 7, 2011 @ 2:18 pm
Since the Republicans were elected saying they would produce jobs, is their tactic to kill women so other people can take their jobs?
Comment posted February 7, 2011 @ 2:24 pm
I wonder how this Bill is going to work with Private Sector in creating jobs???
Since when did the GOP decide to get involved with Social Issues? That’s not their strong suit.
Comment posted February 7, 2011 @ 2:50 pm
Being forced by law to kill babies is OK with Leftists, but being protected from such a law is “killing women’. What a bunch of bilge. 95% of female doctors don’t think its moral to kill babies either, but its OK to force them to take lives, right?
The entire idea of “emergency abortions” or even “medically required” abortions is mainly nonsense.
Leftist profess “safe and rare”, but when the 12yr-old sex slave is brought in, they can’t wait to get out the scissors and plastic bags to start chopping up babies, so that her right to get back on the street (making money for another Leftist) can be protected.
Comment posted February 7, 2011 @ 3:45 pm
Get a uterus, Doug, then we can start talking about what’s an emergency for a woman and what’s bilge. Until then, STFU.
Comment posted February 7, 2011 @ 3:52 pm
Where’s that 95%-of-female-doctors stat from, Doug? Seems fabricated without a credible source.
Comment posted February 7, 2011 @ 5:36 pm
Ah, Republicans….. preaching to the lowest common denominator…. and then stooping just a bit lower. So, they want to save the babies and let the mothers die…. but who’s going to take care of (i.e. PAY) for these poor motherless infants after they’ve destroyed all social programs? This is just another example of Republicans using abortion as a distraction (again) to rouse their insipid base, while ignoring any and all real issues that need to be solved.
Comment posted February 7, 2011 @ 6:12 pm
Thank you, Paul, for pointing out Doug’s very odd statistic. I too would like to see the research study from which it was drawn.
it is absolutely beyond my comprehension why our Congress would propose such a bill ANYTIME, not simply in a session that was supposed to be dedicated to solving economic problems. This “conscience clause” gives rights to a fetus (not a “baby”) that are denied to an adult woman. It’s an appalling bill.
Comment posted February 7, 2011 @ 6:26 pm
Thanks, Cindy. Great comment. Leave it to some male-identified anonymous (cowardly) commenter to tell women — and doctors — what’s best for women… and 12-year-old victims of sexual slavery.
Comment posted February 7, 2011 @ 7:25 pm
Say Doug, sounds like you know about 12 year old sex slaves. How is that?
Comment posted February 7, 2011 @ 7:30 pm
I never used to believe is his good and evil BS, in its current form there is no other way to describe Republicans. I am sure that there maybe one or to decent ones somewhere, but the public face of the party is nothing but evil.
Comment posted February 8, 2011 @ 9:05 am
This is pure emotional propaganda. The bill will prevent discrimination by those who refuse to perform abortions on healthy babies in healthy mothers. It will not change anything in emergencies, when the mother’s life is in immediate danger. I’m a family doctor who studies medical ethics, and the primary classic ethic of doctors is and has been for 2500 years – “Cure when possible, but, first do no harm.”
For one thing, the procedures done in the case of ectopic pregnancies are not counted as “abortions” by the CDC. The Hyde Amendment — which must be added to each year’s appropriations bill — already prevents Federal funds for most abortions.
Comment posted February 9, 2011 @ 10:10 am
Who knows MORE about OB / GYN then John Kline.. When it comes to Vagina’s this guy is the master..
Comment posted February 10, 2011 @ 6:19 am
Alan Greyson’s words echo once again.
The Republican health care plan: DON’T GET SICK.
If you do get sick, or pregnant, DIE QUICKLY.
Comment posted February 10, 2011 @ 11:15 am
These clowns want to put sign on a pregnant woman’s belly that says “Under Government Control, you’re opinion does not matter.”
I am continually amazed that the alleged “small government” politicians want to control something so intimate and personal.
Comment posted February 10, 2011 @ 6:00 pm
Inflame, fear, anger, toxicity are all the emotional reactions the GOP love to get. It takes the heat off what they refuse to do–that is do anything to help the American people recover from their collapse of our economy. They have my vote for the sickest tickets in town. (that having nothing to do with my real vote)
Bachmann tries to defund Planned Parenthood in order to take one more resource away from the poor/middle class-it shows how ridiculous a Congressman she is.
She is one of most fact free people in politics today. What an embarassment to America.
Comment posted February 10, 2011 @ 11:49 pm
Ah, look, it’s little Michele the attention-seeking lunatic.
She, and all of her supporters, disgust me.
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