Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Free Press columnist Nancy Kaffer struggles to make argument on abortion insurance

In a recent column for the Detroit Free Press, columnist Nancy Kaffer claims a petition drive to prevent tax dollars from subsidizing abortion coverage and requiring private plans to pay for abortion coverage with an optional rider "is wrong on so many levels."

She then completely fails to make an argument for how or why this is so wrong.

She writes,

"Despite the group's misleading name, the law would apply not just to publicly funded insurance plans, but also to privately purchased policies. Yes, that's right — Michigan Right to Life wants to dictate the way private companies conduct business, as it relates to the sale of a legal product. There's nothing at all problematic about that."

Well, what is problematic about it?  What's so wrong with requiring employers purchase an optional rider for abortion coverage and then requiring them to notify their employees that they are covering abortion?  Instead of making an actual argument, Kaffer uses sarcasm and assumes it's obvious that abortion should be covered in private health care plans. 

Kaffer then goes on to insinuate there is something wrong with Right to Life of Michigan and grassroots citizens creating and passing citizen-initiated legislation in a process created by Michigan's constitution.  She again fails to provide any argument for why citizen-initiated legislation is wrong.  It's hard to imagine Kaffer being opposed to citizen-initiated legislation if Planned Parenthood and other abortion advocates were behind it. 

Apparently to abortion advocates like Kaffer, Michigan's constitution is filled with "whackier democratic dynamics" and prolife people in Michigan are "gaming electoral loopholes" because she thinks abortion should be covered by standard health insurance plans.  It's too bad she couldn't provide any reasoning to back up her position.