A passed bill in the House on Oct. 13 resumed the abortion controversy. The bill, entitled the Protect Life Act, prohibits federal funding of abortion coverage. It also allows government funded hospitals to deny performing an abortion if they morally oppose it.
Although the established Affordable Care Act keeps public money separate from the private insurers who cover abortions, this is not being properly enforced. Planned Parenthood, a government-funded clinic that performs abortions as well as other reproductive health services, received 363.2 million dollars in government grants and contracts in 2008 alone.
Under the Protect Life Act, clinics and insurers of abortions wouldn’t be able to slip through the cracks and obtain federal funds. This is a positive change that was essential to guarantee that federal funds are not used for immoral acts.
Along with this positive change comes a negative reaction to the second part of the bill. Though many are against allowing hospitals to choose if they should perform an abortion even if a woman would die without the procedure, we should trust hospitals’ moral judgments. These objections regarding the second section of the bill should not be a major concern among Americans.
The Catholic Church states that under no condition is abortion morally acceptable and the sixth commandment states “You shall not murder.” If one thinks of the situation logically, allowing a woman to die without giving her proper treatment that knowingly will save their life is technically killing them.
In most cases, a morally justified human being would believe that it’s in line with one’s conscience to save someone’s life that is dying. If a mother dies, the baby has a chance that it might die along with the woman. It’s ethically moral in most people’s mind to save one life rather than let two die.
Everyone in the United States, and in the world for that matter, obviously does not have identical views on abortion. Why force them hand over their money and to perform a procedure that they don’t approve of? With the new legislature passed in the Protect Life Act, citizens won’t be commanded to give their money or to commit an abortion procedure that they aren’t comfortable with.
Kailey Tracy is a Copy Editor for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.
