New Trump Health Plan; Life Begins at Conception
By James Donahue
Even though he left Washington in disgrace, it appears that former Health and Human Services Director Tom Price has left the nation’s women a parting shot that may send the abortion issue screaming back to the Supreme Court.
Price was promoting the belief that life begins at the moment of conception. Now a new draft strategic plan to “improve” American health care, issued by the Trump Administration, clearly defines “life as beginning at conception,” a report in Truthdig reveals.
The story by reporter Emily Wells states: “After rolling back the Obama-era birth control mandate, thus allowing employers to deny birth control coverage to employees based on religious or moral grounds, the Trump Administration has made another assault on women’s health care.
“The draft currently presents five goals: enhancing the national health care system; improving the general lifestyles of Americans; scientific advancement; improving national prosperity; and lengthening the average lifespan. But the draft also problematically defines life as beginning at conception – a move largely overlooked by the media,” Wells wrote.
Price was clearly opposed to abortion. In 2005 he sponsored a Right to Life Act that defined life at conception and if it had become law, it would have conflicted with the Supreme Court’s controversial Roe vs. Wade decision of 1973. Price’s proposed bill would have given full legal rights to unborn children, from conception on, with no exception for rape, incest or threat to a woman’s life. It would have made the morning after pill and IUDs illegal.
If this draft moves through the Congress and is written into law, it will clearly be in conflict with Roe vs. Wade. It will immediately challenge the legality of not only abortions, but any attempt to stop a pregnancy from the moment of conception.
As Wells put it: Such a law “would put control over women’s bodies – including, perhaps, what she ate, drank or did while pregnant – in the hands of the state.”
She noted that a drafted plan published before Price left office references faith or faith-based organizations over 40 times. Many of the top people working in Health and Human Services under Trump are established anti-abortion people clearly influenced by the doctrines of the Christian church.
The fact that the Supreme Court has been stacked in recent years with ultra-conservative judges who regularly tip the scales of justice in favor of the right-wing Republican agenda, suggests that the decision is already established in the event that the abortion issue is ever brought before that court again.
By James Donahue
Even though he left Washington in disgrace, it appears that former Health and Human Services Director Tom Price has left the nation’s women a parting shot that may send the abortion issue screaming back to the Supreme Court.
Price was promoting the belief that life begins at the moment of conception. Now a new draft strategic plan to “improve” American health care, issued by the Trump Administration, clearly defines “life as beginning at conception,” a report in Truthdig reveals.
The story by reporter Emily Wells states: “After rolling back the Obama-era birth control mandate, thus allowing employers to deny birth control coverage to employees based on religious or moral grounds, the Trump Administration has made another assault on women’s health care.
“The draft currently presents five goals: enhancing the national health care system; improving the general lifestyles of Americans; scientific advancement; improving national prosperity; and lengthening the average lifespan. But the draft also problematically defines life as beginning at conception – a move largely overlooked by the media,” Wells wrote.
Price was clearly opposed to abortion. In 2005 he sponsored a Right to Life Act that defined life at conception and if it had become law, it would have conflicted with the Supreme Court’s controversial Roe vs. Wade decision of 1973. Price’s proposed bill would have given full legal rights to unborn children, from conception on, with no exception for rape, incest or threat to a woman’s life. It would have made the morning after pill and IUDs illegal.
If this draft moves through the Congress and is written into law, it will clearly be in conflict with Roe vs. Wade. It will immediately challenge the legality of not only abortions, but any attempt to stop a pregnancy from the moment of conception.
As Wells put it: Such a law “would put control over women’s bodies – including, perhaps, what she ate, drank or did while pregnant – in the hands of the state.”
She noted that a drafted plan published before Price left office references faith or faith-based organizations over 40 times. Many of the top people working in Health and Human Services under Trump are established anti-abortion people clearly influenced by the doctrines of the Christian church.
The fact that the Supreme Court has been stacked in recent years with ultra-conservative judges who regularly tip the scales of justice in favor of the right-wing Republican agenda, suggests that the decision is already established in the event that the abortion issue is ever brought before that court again.