Two days ago I went into a tailspin over the news that in Obama's Universal Healthcare plan a new amendment would not cover abortion and further, it would prevent anyone who is receiving a federal subsidy from buying health insurance which covers abortion.

Let me first say that I am a Conservative! However, I believe that true Conservatism has nothing to do with morality or social engineering of any sort. To be Conservative is to resist Federal control over our society and to keep government spending in check. In a nutshell, it relates directly to Fiscal Responsibility and States Rights!

Needless to say, having the Federal Government dictate what any citizen does with their body diametrically opposes my core beliefs. Therefore, I am also very Pro-Choice!

So, what does this bill and amendment really mean? Well, being that my political views are not intertwined with my moral beliefs, I'm on the left field when it comes to these issues and feel that I'm able to see this a bit more objectively than most. So, I will do my best to illustrate the fundamental Left, Right and Center reasons as to why this bill and this amendment are a setback for our society.

First the Left: The reason why this amendment is in complete opposition to a Progressive Modern Society is not that the Universal Healthcare Bill will not fund Abortion but in the second provision of this amendment. The cold, hard reality of Abortion Statistics is that the majority of Women receiving Abortions are in families with a combined income of less than $60,000 a year. Within that majority, a large percentage of Abortions are conducted on Women in families who are at, below or near the Federal Poverty Line. Here are the statistics for the U.S.A.

“Women with family incomes less than $15,000 obtain 28.7% of all abortions; Women with family incomes between $15,000 and $29,999 obtain 19.5%; Women with family incomes between $30,000 and $59,999 obtain 38.0%; Women with family incomes over $60,000 obtain 13.8%.”

With common logic, one will deduce that the majority of Abortions are being conducted on Women who will most likely be receiving Healthcare through this plan. Ah-ha! In a nutshell, the Women who are in greater need of The-Right-to-Choose are the ones who will most likely be receiving a Federal Subsidy and under this amendment, they will be prevented from receiving an Abortion or worse, prevented from buying Health Insurance which covers Abortion! The social cost will be great, the strain on families will be great and the strain on Women themselves will be even greater! It amounts to a semi-reversal of Roe v. Wade and may very likely lead to more Illegal Abortions being conducted. Thus, putting women at risk and creating more crime.

Now the Right: To have the Federal Government nationally mandate such a provision is in conflict with states rights. It also places the government inside your body, which if you are a Crazy Constitutionalist, Libertarian like me, goes completely against your fundamental belief that Federal Government should be restricted and small, relating primarily to national defense and not to morality based social issues such as drug use, abortion, marriage, euthanasia, etc. You own your body, not the Government, and should be able to do what you want with it, even if you want to die or abort your fertilized embryo. Also, any sort of Federal Healthcare plan only serves to inflate government and give it further control over what you chose to do with your body.

To the Center: The Center/Populist perspective is more diverse and swings to both sides. So, I will illustrate the Center of the Center/Populist perspective on this. Government programs such as Social Security, Medicare, etc. are a fact of Modern Society. A National Healthcare program is not fundamentally a bad thing. It is needed and it can only serve to better our society. But it is currently not the most pressing issue we face. Why not first push Federally subsidized Secondary Education?

Isn't the greater disparity in our society, peoples access to Higher Education? Our class system is primarily divided by those who are degreed and those who are not. People who do not have a college education make up the majority of people who cannot afford insurance or who are not employed by companies who offer a comprehensive insurance plan. Women who are receiving Abortions are also primarily within this demographic. To address the issue of Healthcare before the issue of availability to Higher Education essentially amounts to giving people a carrot when what they really need are seeds. It does nothing to address the greater disparity of class within our society but only furthers peoples dependance upon the Government.

In summery: Without getting into the argument of Abortion being right or wrong or the Protestant and Prussian underpinnings of American morality and justice, there are still so many reasons, from all sides of the fence, as to why this bill is not what we need right now. It is unfortunate that we are being forced to deal with this now when what we have been calling out for are JOBS and an end to this Recession. We've seen the bailouts, we're even in two wars that most Americans still don't understand and we've been polarized as nation for well over a decade. Now we are being force fed this issue.

As I see it: We have had five Republican Presidents and two Democratic Presidents excluding Obama since Roe v. Wade passed through the Supreme Court in 1973, and none of them succeeded to establish any kind of Federal Control over this piece of Case Law. If this bill is passed with this amendment intact, it will be the first successful Federal Regulation of access to Abortions. I also feel that Universal Healthcare is not necessary at this point and time. Our nation has done fairly well without it for over two hundred years and is in no position economically to worry about this. For me, it's as if we are obsessing over a leak in the bathtub while the roof is caving in. Yes, the leak needs to be addressed, no doubt, but the roof is of far more importance! Today, our roof is the Economy!The growing disparity of those who are receiving some form of secondary education and those who are not is the ticking time bomb that we really need to address.

I also don't like having the Government in my panties and any Federal mandate that would place it there gets them into a bunch. I also feel that if anything needs to be considered a “Right” for our people, it is Education. With an educated Populous many issues will iron themselves out over time. Still, reforming Education right now is not the immediate issue today. It is the sate of our Economy as it stands, here and now with the available tools we have to address it. The fact that majority of everyone I know are either unemployed or broke is not going to be addressed by any policies whose effects will be seen in the future. People need jobs and money now!

My best friend is the President of a small Aerospace company and for the past two years has been worked to the bone to keep it afloat, he's been on half salary, no salary and his retirement is basically drained out. Further, his situation is not uncommon! Ask him if he feels that Universal Healthcare is what matters now!

In my case, I was laid off from a job which gave me Health Insurance and I'm currently uninsured. Ask me if that's what I worry about when I wake up in the morning. My answer will be a definite, NO! What I worry about is the fact that there are so few jobs available in my field and employers are now offering salaries lower than what they were in 1995 when I took my pimpled face and lanky limbs and ventured out into the job market.

Additionally, with all the news coverage, ad campaigns and having our law makers deal with this issue, we have already wasted much needed time and finances on this Healthcare Bill when it has not even passed through the Senate yet. Total up the public cost of having this issue on the forefront of our nation's agenda and it becomes painfully clear that this bill has already cost us far too much.

Unfortunately, regardless of it's success or failure, the ball is rolling and there is nothing we can do now to do to stop it.