While many of us are quite happy to see healthcare being reformed,  fervently hoping it will mean the underprivileged and lower middle class might feel secure as they age and find problems they were once unaware of, the underprivileged women of the world will just have to deal with some of their issues on their own.

If  H.R 3962 passes in its current incarnation, women seeking abortions will not be covered unless their personal safety is in jeopardy or the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.  And while these are certainly good reasons for contemplating abortion and should, in my mind, obviously be covered, they are not the only reasons an abortion might be justified.

Typically, those who seek illegal abortion are the ones without the money to pay for a safe one; those afraid to admit to a mistake, and yes, those who are the victims of crimes.  But if a poor woman whose only coverage is Medicaid feels the need to get an abortion and cannot under her coverage, what do you suppose she is going to do?  There is of course adoption, but let us not forget how often that fails, or a women decides to keep a child only to give it up or lose it later when she realizes she is ill-equipped to be a mother; another child likely to become lost in system.

So barring adoption, a woman can find a cheap illegal way of securing an abortion or she can keep the child.  The former scenario almost guarantees horrible conditions and great risk to the mother, while the latter creates any number of unappealing situations; babies having babies, a well intentioned mother unable to provide, the loss of the mother’s childhood and future as she knew it, the possibility for that mother to make a future for herself at all.

This is not to say that it is impossible.  I know several single mothers who have successfully raised healthy, strong-willed and intelligent children.  One in particular gave birth at fourteen, terrified and completely lacking the tools for motherhood.  She stayed in school, raised her daughter well (with the help of family) and ultimately was able to make a success of herself and her life.  This is not the typical scenario though.

Although I fully disagree with using abortion as birth control, when we regulate when it is acceptable for a woman to choose to abort, we regulate her control over her own body.  There are numerous situations that might drive a woman to such a decision that are also perfectly just.  Making Medicaid recipients unable to choose takes the option away from just those women who may need it the most.

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