BUSH POLICY WOULD LET STATES DECIDE ON CARE

The Bush administration is poised to announce a new policy pertaining to the unborn.

The new policy will classify a developing fetus as an "unborn child" for government health care, giving low-income women access to prenatal care while bolstering the administration's anti-abortion credentials.

The plan, now under review, would make the fetus eligible for services under the Children's Health Insurance Program administered by states.

Specifically, states could consider a fetus "a targeted low-income child" and therefore pay for prenatal care and childbirth expenses, according to a draft letter being reviewed by Health and Human Services secretary Tommy Thompson.

The Associated Press story reporting on the policy contained this statement:

"Meanwhile, the National Governor's Association has warned HHS that while some states will embrace the new option and some will immediately reject it, others will face divisive battles over whether to go along."

Well, yes. This is quite the way it is supposed to work under our federal system of 50 states, each one sovereign within its realm. A leading former Supreme Court justice once wrote that the states are our "laboratories of democracy," so a diversity of responses is to be expected.

The coming policy change appears a quite reasonable statement by a pro-life administration. Given Bush's well-known pro-life views, no one should be surprised. If as seems likely, access to prenatal care is improved, it will be all to the good.