Abortion Clouds Reform Debate

Health reform is running into an old foe: abortion.

Democrats' attempts to make health reform "abortion neutral" are distasteful to both sides of the debate, stirring a controversy that threatens to upend the entire plan.

At issue is language in a House bill intended to neither expand or limit publicly funded abortions as part of President Obama's reform plan. It's an attempt to neutralize an issue that arises with any major piece of public health policy.

Pro-choice forces want an expansion of federal-funded abortions. Under a three-decade-old law, federal dollars for Medicaid can only pay for abortions in cases of rape, incest or when a woman's life is in danger.

"This is not at all what the reproductive rights movement had hoped for in health care reform, and it's not a win for women," Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights tells NPR.

But abortion opponents read language in the House bill that's moving forward differently, saying a public insurance plan would offer abortions and that private insurers would get subsidies to pay for the procedures. Most employer-based insurance plans have coverage for abortions, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

The controversy is splitting the U.S. Catholic church, which has long supported health care reform, NPR reports.

"We want health care reform very, very much, but we cannot do that over children's dead bodies, to put it most bluntly," Richard Doerflinger of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops tells NPR. "There is a fundamental issue here about whether taking life should be treated the same way as supporting and healing life."