President's Executive Order for Abortion in Health Care - why the fuss?

In March, 2010, President Obama signed Executive Order 13535 to prevent federal funding of abortions in the new health care bill (properly titled The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act).
 
Exceptions allowing federal funding for abortion will be rape, incest, and “health of the mother.”

The Executive Order replaces the Stupak Amendment, which was keeping some members of Congress from signing the health care legislation.

Why is including “health of the mother” in Executive Order #13535 so controversial?
Doe v Bolton, the companion case to Roe v Wade and signed into law the same day, defines “health of the mother” as any factors decided by the woman and her doctor “that affect physical, emotional, psychological, familial and the woman's age.” This definition is still used today. 

Since 1996, at least 500 physicians and surgeons, including former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, have been writing to newspapers and even testifying before Congress that abortion, especially late term, should never be used as a preferred method to terminate a pregnancy if a mother’s life is in danger.

A Wall Street Journal letter by the physician group called PHACT (Physicians' Ad Hoc Coalition for Truth) stated that instead of protecting the mother, certain methods of abortion “pose a significant and immediate threat to both the pregnant woman's health and fertility.”

Congress and President Obama claim that the newly passed health care legislation protects the conscience clause and prohibits discrimination against health care facilities or providers who are unwilling to participate in funding or providing abortions.

However, many say the wording is too broad, and that a majority of elective abortions will be falsely called "health of the mother" cases for the convenience of federal funding.

According to the Alan Guttmacher Institute's surveys throughout the years of legalized abortion, rape and incest only account for approximately 1.5% of all abortions.

The original version of this article was published here at The Underground Online Magazine.


(Photo: President Obama signs an Executive Order for Higher Education [not related to EO 13535] on March 30, 2010. Photo in Public Domain as taken by an official photographer during U.S. Government duties.)