Charles Fromm

WASHINGTON, Mar 25 2010 (IPS) – The largest civil liberties group in the U.S. faulted President Barack Obama for signing an executive order on Wednesday that bans federal funds from being used for abortion procedures and revives funding for expired abstinence-only sex-education programming.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) issued a statement on Tuesday, joining pro-choice groups in criticising Obama for including stipulations on abortion in his wide-ranging healthcare reform bill, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which was signed into law this week.

Laura Murphy, director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office, characterised the order as troubling , adding that providing health care to Americans should not come at the expense of limits on constitutionally protected access to abortion, and that the White House s hard fought bill came at a very high price for women s right to reproductive health care.

Though the measure does little more than reiterate an existing prohibition on abortion funding, known as the Hyde amendment, it also reinstates the Title V abstinence-only-until-marriage programme, which allots 50 million dollars a year for abstinence-based sex-education programmes in public schools.

The Title V programme lapsed on Jun. 30, 2009 and had not been renewed under the Obama administration. But Title V s critics see Obama s re-instatement of the bill as a dangerous concession made in order to pass the larger healthcare overhaul measure.

The law wastes millions of dollars by raising from the dead a failed sexual education programme, added Murphy, referring to the Title V measure, warning that it thwarts healthy, more effective and life-saving education that is greatly needed by our young people.
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The Hyde amendment was first introduced in 1976, as a response to the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling of Roe vs. Wade that legalised abortion. Since then it has been used by pro-life politicians, to ensure that federal funds are not utilised for abortion procedures, except in cases of rape, incest or danger to a woman s life.

The new health care law tries to maintain a clear separation between taxpayer funds and private premiums that would pay for abortion coverage.

Under the legislation, healthcare providers will not be required to cover abortion. In plans that do cover abortion, private premiums must be used to cover the procedure.

Moreover, individual states would be able to exclude abortion coverage in plans offered through a new federally administered purchasing plan.

Obama spent much of the last year working to reform the nation s health care system but struggled to pass a measure through congress.

The White House reportedly used the Hyde amendment and the reinstatement of the Title V measure to court a critical bloc of Democratic House members, led by Rep. Bart Stupak, as well as the Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus, wrangling the necessary votes needed to pass the bill.

Though Obama promised to take a bipartisan approach on his healthcare initiative, the healthcare debate has been a fiercely partisan endeavour.

No Republicans voted for the sweeping 900-billion-dollar healthcare overhaul on Tuesday, fuelling Republican accusations of Democrats unilateralism and fiscal irresponsibility.

Former Republican speaker of the house, Newt Gingrich, described the methods used by the Obama administration to pass the bill as bullying, browbeating and bribing , on Fox News s On the Record Wednesday night.

Since the passage of the bill on Tuesday, Republicans have proposed amendments in order to force a new vote on the package in an effort to derail the legislation through removing key provisions of the healthcare reforms or removing funding.

Obama reflected on Tuesday before signing the legislation into law that it aims to preserve the core principle that everybody should have some basic security when it comes to their health care.

The landmark law, which has been touted as the most expansive social legislation enacted in decades, is slated to extend healthcare to 32 million U.S. citizens who currently are without it.

The bill will also ban what many view to be the discriminatory policies of insurance corporations, such as refusing coverage to people with pre-existing medical conditions.

Many of the law s most extensive measures won t begin until 2014, including a requirement that most citizens carry health insurance, or pay a fine.